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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
78-76 Dennis A,G,I BRE.30
Town/City: BREWSTER
Place:(neighborhood or village): East Brewster
Address: 2553 Main Street
Historic Name: Foster House / Sea Pines School
Uses:Present: Commercial (hotel)
Original: Residential
Date of Construction: Early-19th c., multiple additions
early-mid 20th c.
Source:Deed research, vital records
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Cement block, brick
Wall/Trim: Wood shingles/ Wood
Roof: Asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
One-story, side-gable building, 1963 (see Photo 2)
Major Alterations (with dates):
Loss of ells in 1942 fire, partial reconstruction of east ell and
new dining room/kitchen
1970s – front deck enclosed
1987 –rear addition
Condition: Good
Moved: no yes Date:
Acreage: 3.12 acres
Setting: This property 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, commercial and institutional buildings, with the
Sea Pine condominium complex behind the parcel. The inn
is set back from the street on its large, level parcel. An
asphalt driveway leads to a parking area west of the
building. Most of the parcel is informally landscaped with
lawn dotted with mature deciduous trees and shrubbery. A
formal terraced garden is east of the inn.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2553 MAIN STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
A,G,I BRE.30
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.
Before describing the current building, its complex evolution will be first described. Earliest visual records show a house with two
distinct elements – a two-story square main block with hipped roof, and a rear two-story element with a gable roof (see Photo 4).
Between 1907 and ca. 1927, the Sea Pines School dramatically expanded the building. The first major alteration was a large
east ell (see Photo 5). A large west ell was then built, a third story was added to the square original house, and the east ell was
expanded, including a long ell extending behind it to the north (see Photo 6). In 1942, a fire destroyed the west, east and north
ells. The ells were not rebuilt, but a new dining room was built where part of the east ell had been. The second brick chimney
and rear ells/additions were added thereafter, and the front porch was enclosed.
Following its conversion to the Sea Pines School in the early-20th century, this building can now be classified as Colonial Revival
in style. The core of the building consists of the three-story main block with low-pitched hipped roof. A large 2½-story, gable-end
addition built in the 1940s extends from the northeast corner of the main block. A one-story enclosed porch extends from the
right of the main block and across the front of the 2½-story addition. A one-story connector leads from the rear of the main block
to a 1½-story gable-roofed addition (see Photo 3). The main entrance is centered on the left (west) elevation of the main block. It
is accessed by exterior wood steps and the entrance is set under a square second-story bay supported by round columns. A
broad open porch spans the front elevation and is supported by single and grouped columns. A second square bay sits atop this
porch.
The building rests on a cement block foundation. However, there is some evidence in the basement of the main block of an
earlier brick foundation. The walls are clad in wood shingles with plain cornerboards. The roof is clad in asphalt shingles and the
three-story block has a deeply-projecting box cornice. Two broad, tall exterior brick chimneys flank both sides of the entrance on
the west elevation. Fenestration consists primarily of wood 6/1, double-hung sash set in flat surrounds with projecting sills. The
rear elevation of the 1940s dining room addition have a combination of 8/1 and diamond-paned double-hung sash. This
diamond-paned window pattern was used throughout much of the first story, with 6/1 double-hung sash on the second and third
story as can be seen in the Photos 5 and 6.
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 property and its large main building are most associated with the Sea Pines School which operated from 1907 to 1977.
Deed research and vital records trace a house in this location back to Capt. Solomon and Polly (Peak) Foster. They married in
Brewster in 1804. Their daughter Hannah married Frances (Varanas) Harding (Harden) in 1846. By the time of the 1850 US
Census, Hannah and Frances Harding were living in this location with her mother, Polly Foster, and Frances was working at sea.
Polly’s husband, Capt. Solomon Harding, had died in 1834. Frances died in 1853, and the house is shown under the name Mrs.
H. Harding on the 1858 Map of Cape Cod and Mrs. Harding on the 1880 Barnstable County Atlas.
Hannah Harding died in 1890, two years after she sold this property to her sister, Temperance Bickford (1824-1895) (Book 212/
Page 312). In 1894, Temperance conveyed the property to her son, Thomas Bickford, the founder of the Sea Pines School
(Book 214/ Page 93). While the description in these deeds clearly identifies this property, the 1888 deed states that the building
is a “story and a half frame dwelling house.” It is unclear if the house shown in Photo 4 is an expanded version of the house
described in the deed.
What is now the Old Sea Pines Inn was once the center of the 300 acre estate known as the Sea Pines School of Charm and
Personality for Young Women operated by Thomas and Anna M. Bickford and their daughter, Faith. The Bickford family traced
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2553 MAIN STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
A,G,I BRE.30
their family lineage to Elder Brewster. William “Elder” Brewster, III (1568-1644), after whom the town was named, was one the
passengers aboard the Mayflower. In 1907, the Bickfords began what became the Sea Pines School – originally a finishing
school for young ladies, which later became a nondenominational college preparatory school. Thomas Bickford died in 1917.
After Faith Bickford succeeded her parents, Sea Pines School was incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1934, and during WWII it
became an elementary school. At its peak, the Bickford’s school holdings stretched to the bay and included 2443 Main Street,
(BRE.163), 2537 Main Street (BRE.194) and 2550 Main Street (BRE.191) where a dormitory wing was added and the parlor was
used as the school’s library.
The school ran successfully until the mid-1950s when Faith’s age appeared to have impacted the school’s reputation and
enrollment declined sharply. Faith Bickford offset operating costs by selling parcels of land that she inherited from her father,
recording the large Sea Pine Neighborhood subdivision in 1948. Perhaps due to financial difficulties, in 1957 Faith Bickford
conveyed the Sea Pines School to Russell E. and Esther Spargo Walp of Marietta, OH (Book 982/ Page 558). According to the
1948 Michigan Alumnus, Russell Walp was an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Michigan, and Esther had been
a long-time member of the staff at the Sea Pines summer camp and was then serving as its director.
Faith Bickford retained control of the school until 1962. That year, she was forced to resign from the school and a new Board of
Directors with new financial support took over control of the school and property. Faith died two years later. In a 1968 publication
for private independent schools, the Sea Pines School was described as a boarding and day school for girls in grades 9-12,
geared towards average and above average students, particularly the “unmotivated and underachiever.”
In 1970, the Walps conveyed the property back to the Sea Pines School (Book 1483/ Page 28). That same year the camp
portion of the property was sold to Corcoran, Mullens & Jennison, condominium developers. The school continued to experience
financial difficulties and closed due to bankruptcy in 1977. At that time, the school was known as the Friendship School in
reference to the New England coastal fishing vessel known as the Friendship sloop, and to the emphasis on social issues in the
late 1960s. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank foreclosed on their mortgage to the property in 1977 and that same year
conveyed it to Steven and Michelle Rowan of Corbettsville, NY (Book 2622/ Page 181). They have continued to own and
operate this property, and 2537 Main Street (BRE.194), as the Old Sea Pines Inn. At the time the Rowans purchased the main
Sea Pines School building, also known as Bickford Hall, it had been vacant for about one year.
This parcel is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District adopted in 1973, and the inn is a contributing
resource in 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
Old Sea Pines Inn - Historic records
Michigan Alumnus, University of Michigan, 1948
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2553 MAIN STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 3
A,G,I BRE.30
Brewster Assessor sketch. Photo 2. View of large outbuilding, looking northeast.
Photo 3. View looking southeast.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2553 MAIN STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 4
A,G,I BRE.30
Photo 4. View of house, 1890-1905.
Photo 5. View with addition of the east ell (later expanded)
Photo 6. View of school with west ell added (left), third floor to original house added, east ell expanded, and long rear ell
extending north from east ell (not visible).