Sykes House
historic house in Massachusetts, United States
The Sykes House is a historic house located at 521 West Main Street in North Adams, Massachusetts. It was built in 1890, and is a prominent local example of Queen Anne architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Description and history
The Sykes House is located in Braytonville, one mile west of downtown North Adams, on the north side of West Main Street (Massachusetts Route 2) opposite Marion Avenue. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a complex roof line and mostly clapboarded exterior. A polygonal bay projects to the front and right side, with the main entrance to its left. The entrance is sheltered by a porch with turned posts, a spindled valance, and a decorative panel in the gable. The chimney has a decorative brick corbelling at the top. Windows on the second floor have decorative carving in the lintels above them. A single-story ell extends to the left, and a two-story ell extends to the rear.
“Sykes House” enters the record as historic house in Massachusetts, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sykes, House and historic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Sykes House” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sykes, House and historic provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7660514. Authority coordinates are 42.699, -73.133. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890 and 1985.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sykes House”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sykes House primary sources, Sykes House archive and Sykes research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sykes House”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sykes House” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.