1639 - Formation of the plantation called Lynn Village.
1644 - Massachusetts Court of Assistants votes to rename Lynn village to Reading.
1694 - This house, the oldest documented one still standing in Reading, was built by Abraham Bryant, a farmer and blacksmith. It is a style called "saltbox", typical of seventeenth century houses, with a massive central chimney.
1724 - Abraham Bryant 3rd sold the house to his brother-in-law Nathaniel Stow, who was also a blacksmith.
1739 - Ebenezer Nichol, a tanner and man of affairs, becomes the next owner.
1760 - Ephraim Parker, from whom the house takes its name, operated a licnsed inn during the Revolutionary Was periond. some of the prisoners of was from the 71st Scottish Regiment, with colonel Archibald Campbell in command, were quartered here.
1806 - Thomas Sweetser acquired the property and used it as a farm.
1916 - The town of Reading acquired the property.
1923 - The town sold the Tavern to the Reading Antiquarian Society for a nominal sum. Since 1923, the Society has maintained the house for the benefit of all the townspeople, without any appropriation from the town's budget.
