James Blake House, sits on Dorchester’s Columbia Road, about 400 yards from its original location on what is now Massachusetts Avenue. The house is thought to be the only example of West England country framing in the United States. Most of the early colonial homes in Dorchester, such as the Pierce House, were built by housewrights from the south and east of England, where brick and plaster building predominated. However, the Blake House was built in the manner of the homes of western England, which had long used heavy timber framing methods. The James Blake House is a two-story, central chimney, gable-roof dwelling of timber-frame construction.