Joshua Jones House

The Joshua Jones House, also known as the Jones House, is located on the property of Strawbery Banke Museum, on the northwest corner of Atkinson Street and Puddle Lane (formerly Charles Street).

Joshua Jones was a common man. He was born near Little Harbor to a family of boat builders and purchased this home in 1796, a few years after it was constructed. Standing on the banks of the old Puddle Dock inlet, the large house was at the perfect location for a boat builder; however, he never took up the trade.



Joshua Jones became a jack-of-all-trades. His job descriptions included farmer, trader, truckman, grain weigher, and yeoman. He was not a rich man but apparently provided well for his wife and their ten children. He lived in this home for the remainder of his life and died in 1843. Afterwards, the house became a rental property.


Joshua Jones and his family have been mostly forgotten by history. All of the information for this short article came from Strawbery Banke Museum’s online article, “Jones House”.

I downloaded these vintage photographs from the Library of Congress and an Historic American Building Survey (HABS) of 1961. Hard to believe (for us old folks), but 1961 was over fifty years ago!