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Home My Public Portal AboutMainSt_2443, BRE.163Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.12/12 FORM B  BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Locus Map N Recorded by: Eric Dray, Preservation Consultant, for Organization: Brewster Historical Commission Date (month / year): November, 2017 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 78-49 Dennis A,G,I BRE.163 Town/City: BREWSTER Place:(neighborhood or village): East Brewster Address: 2443-2449 Main Street Historic Name: Foster, Mercy and Chillingsworth House Uses:Present: Commercial - Restaurant Original: Residential Date of Construction: 1699/ ca. 1793 Source:Deyo, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890 Style/Form: Georgian/ Full Cape Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Fieldstone, cement Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard, wood shingles/ Wood Roof: Wood and asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Small outbuilding west of building, cement block foundation (see Photo 2) Major Alterations (with dates): Multiple additions, ells, dormers (20th c.) Condition: Good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 4.24 acres Setting: This former house is located in East Brewster on the north side of Main Street. The surrounding area is developed with a mix of historic and contemporary residential and commercial buildings. The restaurant on this property is set slightly back from the street on its level parcel. The property is a landscaped with a mix of lawn and mature deciduous and evergreen trees. An asphalt driveway leads to a parking area west of the building. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2443-2449 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 A,G,I BRE.163 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The core of this rambling restaurant is a Colonial-era Full Cape. The form of this Cape is typical of examples from that period, including the width of the house, with fenestration broadly spaced and set up into the roof entablature on the front elevation. The Cape portion of this building rests on a fieldstone foundation. The walls are clad in painted wood shingles with plain cornerboards on the front elevation and wood clapboard with varying reveals on the side elevations. The broad roof is clad in wood shingles and has a projecting molded box cornice. Other building ells and additions have a mix of wood shingles and clapboard siding and have asphalt shingle roofing. A tall chimney is centered on the main roof ridge. The front elevation is characteristic of the Full Cape form, with a centered entrance flanked by pairs of windows on each side. A pedimented front entrance porch obscures what was likely an original entrance flush with the façade. The six-panel wood door is flanked by sidelights with transom windows above. Fenestration consists primarily of wood 12/12 double-hung sash on the first story and 8/12 windows on the second story. Two large, pedimented, gable dormers were added to the front roof slope. There are numerous additions extending primarily from the rear and left (west) sides of the Cape. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. (This Historical Narrative is adapted and expanded from the 1979 version of this Form B.) According to the 1979 version of this Form B, this house was built in the early 18th century for Mercy Freeman and Chillingsworth Foster, III. Mercy Freeman was the grandniece of William “Elder” Brewster, III (1568-1644). The Town of Brewster was named after Elder Brewster, who was one the passengers aboard the Mayflower. Mercy Freeman (1667-1720) married Deacon Chillingsworth Foster, III (1680-1764). They are believed to have had nine children between 1711 and 1720. Deacon Chillingsworth Foster was a founder of the First Parish Church in the North Precinct of Harwich (now Brewster), founded in 1700. However, according to Samuel Deyo’s biographical sketch of Rev. Cyrus A. Bradley (a later owner of this house) in his History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts: 1620-1890, this house was first built in 1699 for Chillingsworth Foster and then rebuilt ca. 1793. The house remained in the Foster family. The house is shown with the name “F. Foster” on the 1858 Map of Cape Cod. This refers to Capt. Freeman Foster (1782-1870). According to family history recounted in the 1905 book, Brewster Ship Masters, Freeman Foster began seafaring at the age of ten, sailing on fishing trips with his father, David Foster, who had been a whaler. At the age of fourteen he shipped in the merchant service and soon worked his way to the quarter-deck. He went on to command a number of ships. His voyages were confined to the North Atlantic between Boston and the West Indies, New Orleans and Russian ports. About the age of 55 he retired to his farm in Brewster, where he resided until his death. He was twice chosen representative to the General Court (i.e. the Massachusetts State House). He was an early convert to Universalism, and was one of the founders of that church in Brewster. Freeman and Mehitable (Low) Foster’s daughter, Lucretia, married Rev. Cyrus A. Bradley and this house is shown with his name on the 1880 Barnstable Atlas map. Bradley was born in Dracut in 1822, became a Universalist minister in 1845, and married Lucretia Foster (1821-1913) in Brewster in 1855. They were living in Dracut as of the 1865 US Census, but were back in Brewster by 1870. However, Bradley was listed as living in Yarmouth in 1874 when the heirs of Freeman Foster conveyed this property to him. That deed described the property as including “tillage and beach land … together with dwelling house, barn and all outbuildings….” (Book 116/ Page 158). Cyrus Bradley died in 1906 and Lucretia died in 1913. That same year, their son Asa, living in Portland, ME, conveyed this property, comprising 18 acres, to Thomas Bickford (Book 325/ Page 173). Thomas Bickford (1853-1917) was living in Bourne with his wife Anna (1853-1930) and their daughter Faith. He was listed as the principal of a private school. By 1920, Anna INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2443-2449 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 A,G,I BRE.163 Bickford, now a widow, was listed as a manager of a private school, referring to the Sea Pines School, now the Old Sea Pines Inn (2553 Main Street, BRE.30). They were living at the school, her daughter Faith was listed as the principal, and they had twelve boarders. Anna remained in that post until her death in 1930. It is unclear who lived in this house during this time. The Bickfords had assembled a large tract of land and in 1948, Faith Bickford recorded a subdivision for the so-called Sea Pines Neighborhood on which this parcel is labelled the “Homestead” identified as Lot 78 (see attached, Plan Book 82/ Page 83). In 1950, Bickford conveyed Lot 78 to F. Rene and Priscilla M. Murad of Bedford, NY (Book 761/ Page 423). Three years later, they were living in Brewster when they conveyed it to Miriam B. Lawrence of Brewster (Book 858/ Page 160). In 1955, Murad conveyed it to Robert Stevenson of New York, NY (Book 909/ Page 285). This deed included the provision that the property may be used commercially but only for renting rooms, food, arts and crafts and antiques. In 1976, the estate of Robert Stevenson conveyed the property to Chillingsworth, Inc. which has operated the property as a restaurant with guest rooms. The property is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District adopted in 1973, and the former house is a contributing resource within the Old King’s Highway National Register District listed in 1996. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES 1858 Map, Map of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, & Nantucket, Walling, Henry. 1880 Map, Atlas of Barnstable County, Boston, MA: George H. Walker & Co., 1880. 1910 Map, Atlas of Barnstable County, Boston, MA: Walker Litho. & Publishing Co., 1910. Barnstable County Registry of Deeds Deyo, Simeon L., ed., History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts: 1620-1890, New York: H. W. Blake & Co., 1890. Sears, Joseph Henry, Brewster Ship Masters, C. W. Swift, Publisher: Yarmouthport, MA, 1906. www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1870, 1900), State Census (1865) www.onlinebiographies.info/ma/barn/brewster-ma.htm#Bradley-Cyrus Brewster Assessor sketch. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2443-2449 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 A,G,I BRE.163 Photo 2. View looking northeast. Photo 3. View looking northwest. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2443-2449 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 4 A,G,I BRE.163 1950 Sea Pines Neighborhood Subdivision, Lot 78, Plan Book 82/ Page 83 (arrow added).