This is a typical vernacular two-story, central chimney, lobby-entrance clap-boarded farmhouse of perhaps early- to mid-eighteenth-century date. Its 1915 Colonial Revival restoration, nevertheless, memorialized “the spirit and tradition” of the Puritans. Sponsored by the Melrose Historical Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the local Society of Arts and Crafts, the work was firmly in the Arts and Crafts tradition as well documented in 1918 watercolor drawings by a member of the society. Like so many other turn-of-the-century restored houses, the Phineas Upham House was originally supported by having a tea room (many furnishings of which still remain) for automobile travelers driving north of Boston in search of “old New England.” It is now in the care of Upham Family of America and is open by appointment.