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Home My Public Portal AboutMainSt_2601, BRE.32Follow 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 78-84 Dennis A,G,I BRE.32 Town/City: BREWSTER Place:(neighborhood or village): East Brewster Address: 2601 Main Street Historic Name: Bangs House Uses:Present: Residential Original: Residential Date of Construction: ca. 1780 Source:Deed research, building form Style/Form: Federal/ Full Cape Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Stone Wall/Trim: Wood shingles/ Wood Roof: Asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Barn (19th c.) (see Photos 3, 4) Major Alterations (with dates): Rear addition (1957) Condition: Good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 1.03 acres Setting: This 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, commercial and institutional buildings. The house is set relatively close to the street on its level parcel. A gravel driveway off Bittersweet Drive leads to a barn west of the house. The parcel is informally landscaped with lawn dotted with mature deciduous trees and shrubbery, and a split rail fence runs along the street. The house is surrounded by foundation plantings. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2601 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 A,G,I BRE.32 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. This is an intact example of a late-18th century, Federal-style Full Cape. A number of features distinguish Federal Capes from earlier Colonial-era Capes; they are typically slightly more compact, more symmetrical, and the decorative elements are more refined, such as the dentil molding along the cornice and the fluted pilasters at the front entrance of this house. The building rests on a stone foundation. The walls are clad in wood shingles with narrow cornerboards. The roof is clad in asphalt shingles (likely wood shingles originally) and has a modest cornice most noteworthy for the above-mentioned dentil molding along the front elevation. A large, corbelled brick chimney is centered on the roof ridge. The front elevation is characteristic of the Full Cape form, with a centered entrance flanked by pairs of evenly ranked windows on each side. The front entrance has a six-panel wood door set in a surround decorated with fluted pilasters. The door lintel is set into the cornice trim, a feature often seen on early Capes. Fenestration consists of wood and replacement 6/6 windows set in flat surrounds, and new 4/4 windows on the second story of the side elevations. The window casings on the front elevation also abut the cornice trim. As is seen by the attached Assessor sketch, there is a large rear addition that was built in 1957. The 1979 version of this Form B provides further details about the size and interior: The original house measures approx. 40' x 38' and is structurally the same as when it was built circa 1780. All walls are single walls vertically planked with 1 1/8” pine. The sills are 13" x 15" oak. As was the custom, the roof is vertically boarded with rafters and crosspieces are mortised & pegged. Some of the bedroom floorboards measure 23” wide. There is a round cellar of fieldstone with a brick floor. There are wide boards around the base of the exterior walls to protect the crawl space from winter winds and sand. There is moderate use of dentil work within and without the house. Perhaps the most intriguing detail of the house is the beehive bake oven discovered in 1977. This oven was built behind the actual original kitchen fireplace with its opening on the right side of the rear wall of the fireplace. Set close to the west side of the house is a large side-gable barn with barn doors on the front elevation (see Photos 3, 4). 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. The earliest identified conveyance for this property is an 1852 deed from Mary Ann Bangs, widow of mariner Silvanus Bangs, to her son Sylvanus Bangs, also a mariner. The date given for the house in the 1979 version of this Form B is ca. 1780, which is supported by the form of the house, as described above. If that is the case, then this was likely the homestead of Mary Ann’s father-in-law, Sylvanus Bangs (1760-1837). He died the same year as his son Sylvanus (1803-1837). The year after Mary Ann Bangs conveyed this house to her son, Sylvanus Bangs, he conveyed the property to his sister and brother-in-law, Olive (Bangs) (b. 1827) and George F. Crosby, who was also a mariner (Book 54/ Page 578). At that time, the property also included four acres across the street. In 1857, George and Olive Crosby sold this property to Bela B. Berry (Book 63/ Page 338). Bela B. Berry (b. 1831) was also mariner. In 1874, Bela Berry, Jr. (1859-1895), a minor at the time, sold this property to Reuben West Ellis of Brewster (Book 94/ Page 266). In 1881, Reuben W. Ellis (1836-1904) conveyed the property to Thaddeus E. Ellis (Book 140/ Page 324).The kinship between Reuben and Thaddeus is unclear – Thaddeus was one of at least eight children, none of whom were named Reuben. Thaddeus E. Ellis (1832-1913) married his wife Caroline in 1855 and worked as a fisherman and farmer. (Note: The 1979 version of this Form B mistakenly refers to R. Ellis in the 1880 Barnstable Atlas as the widow of Thaddeus Ellis). In two transactions in 1927 and 1939, the children of Thaddeus and Caroline Ellis sold their interest in the six acre parcel to their brother Gilbert E. Ellis (Book 445/ Page 357, Book 552/ Page 276). Gilbert E. Ellis (1867-1944) married Lydia Cahoon (1865- 1944) in 1887 and he worked as a farmer of his own land. They had one son, Gilbert E. Ellis, Jr. (1888-1952) to whom the house passed. Ellis, Jr. worked as a weir fisherman. He and his first wife Faythe had two children, Catherine and Robert. This property passed to Robert and in 1971 Robert recorded the Bittersweet Drive subdivision on the 6 acre parcel creating the current sized INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2601 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 A,G,I BRE.32 parcel for 2601 Main Street. According to the 1979 version of this Form B, the house was used for an unspecified period of time as an infirmary for the adjacent Sea Pines School, and a small part of the roof was burned in the fire that destroyed a large portion of the school in 1942. In 1984, Robert and his wife Ruth Ellis were living in Pompano Beach, FL when they sold this property to Ann and Scott Svenningsen of Brewster (Book 4343/ Page 99). Interestingly, in 2009, the property returned to the Ellis family when the Svenningsens sold the property to Ann M. Ellis of Brewster (Book 23806/ Page 18). This parcel is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District adopted in 1973, and the house and barn are contributing resources in the Old King’s Highway National Register District adopted 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 www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1880, 1900, 1920), State Census (1855) 1979 version of Form B, Teresa Ellis Brewster Assessor sketch. Photo 2. View looking north. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2601 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 A,G,I BRE.32 Photo 3. 1979 Dorm B photo. Photo 4. 1969 Form B photo.