The Burnham-Andrews farmhouse at 50 Argilla Road was built in approximately 1815 at the end of the Federal era. Two large additions on the rear right appear to be pre-1900s.
In the 1832 Ipswich map, Thomas Burnham owned the ancient 1660 Giddings-Burnham House, which still stands at 43 Argilla Rd. The Burnham farm at one time stretched both sides of Argilla Road. Theodore Andrews’ farm is shown at the location of the 1690 James Burnham House at 45 Heartbreak Road, also still standing. But no house is shown at this location in the 1832 map or the 1910 map.
There is a tradition that the house was moved to this location in the late 18th or early 19th Century. In the 1910 Ipswich map, the home of Joseph Howard Burnham is shown on the slope of Rocky Hill with a driveway that curves down to the intersection of Argilla and Heartbreak Roads. Burnham constructed the house presently standing, but it is possible that the Andrews house that previously stood at that location is the house now at 50 Argilla Rd.
Theodore Andrews was described as a “Lace Manufacturer” who bought the Philemon Dean house on South Main Street at auction and sold it to the Ipswich Manufacturing Company in 1837. The building came to be known as “The Old Lace Factory.” He and Ebenezer Burnham were among a group of men who founded the Unitarian Church of Ipswich in 1830.
Based on architectural features, the house is dated to 1815 by the Ipswich Historical Commission. Further observations are needed to determine who built the house, when it was constructed, and the date it was moved.
Historic Ipswich 