Statement of Significance (as of designation - January 12, 1965):
From 1811-23, this structure was the home of Nathanial Bowditch, who effected great advances in navigation and helped bring European mathematics to America. He uncovered 8,000 errors in an 1800 English volume, "The Practical Navigator," and two years later published "The New American Practical Navigator." This volume supplanted the older work as a standard manual for seamen the world over. For years afterward sailors left port armed with a "Testament, a Bowditch, a quadrant, a chest of sea clothes, and a mother's blessing."