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HomeMy Public PortalAboutMainSt_3315, BRE.43Follow 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 114-45 Dennis A, G BRE.43 Town/City: BREWSTER Place:(neighborhood or village): East Brewster Address: 3315 Main Street (10 Cosby Lane in MACRIS) Historic Name: Crosby, Nathan and Catherine House Uses:Present: Residential Original: Residential Date of Construction: [1823-1850] Source:Deed research Style/Form: Greek Revival Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Granite, stone Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard / Wood Roof: Asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Small shed Major Alterations (with dates): None Condition: Good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 1.30 acres Setting: This property is located in East Brewster on the north side of Main Street, and is bordered on the west by Crosby Lane. This section of Main Street and Crosby Lane is developed with a mix of historic and contemporary residential buildings, with Nickerson State Park to the south. This house is set back from the street and largely obscured by mature trees and shrubbery. An informal parking area is located off Crosby Lane. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 3315 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 A, G BRE.43 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 a high-style example of the Greek Revival style. The house consists of a 2½-story gable-front main block with a stepped- down two-story lateral ell to the west, and a long, one-story rear ell. The house rests on a stone foundation. The walls are clad in wood clapboard and the main block and lateral ell have prominent corner pilasters with recessed panels. The roof is clad in asphalt shingles and has a prominent entablature with a projecting molded box cornice with deep frieze boards below and partial returns across the gable ends (employed to suggest the full pediment of a Greek temple). A tall corbelled brick chimney rises from the lateral ell. The main gable-block front is three bays wide with an off-centered entrance. This entrance consists of a wood panel door flanked by sidelights and very broad pilasters all surmounted by a broad molded lintel. Fenestration consists primarily of wood 6/6 double-hung sash set in flat surrounds with molded lintels. The windows on the first story are considerably taller than those on the second story – a feature sometimes seen with high-style Greek Revival houses. An open porch supported by fluted columns runs in front of the lateral ell. A second entrance is located on the front of this ell whose surround is similar to the main entrance. A very long, one-story ell extends from the rear of the lateral ell. 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 1980 version of this Form B states that the oldest part of the house is the two-story lateral ell which began as an 18th century “narrow” house with the Greek Revival gable-front element added in the 19th century, and provides the following explanation: On a closer look one realizes that the 2½ story eastern portion with its arched attic window and Greek Revival front entrance and pilasters is perhaps an addition to the existing 2 story western "narrow" house. This west part has a traditional ell of the rear, very long and with the privy at the very end. This description is incorrect. This is a high-style example of a two-story Greek Revival-style house with a very common form of gable-front block with lateral ell. In other words, the two-story ell did not begin as an 18th century “narrow” house. It might be possible that some portion of the rear one-story ell was originally an older separate dwelling or the remnants of an earlier house that was replaced by the imposing Greek Revival house, but that would require in-depth materials analysis to prove. The 1980 version of the Form B provides, in part, the following history: This is an ancestral home of the Crosby family, being owned by a Crosby relative until the early or mid 1900s.The Crosby family has been a part of Brewster since 1700 at least, that is the date when Thomas Crosby along with 7 other men founded the First Parish Church of Harwich in that part of Harwich now Brewster. The present owner [as of 1980] claims that a deed search went back to 1820 or 1822 and stopped there because of lack of previous records lost in the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds fire in 1827. Further proof is from a rafter with the inscription "1812 (and) CROSBY" carved into it which was found when Mrs. Gladys MacGregor had the barn dismantled, while she was owner. Reference to the “1812” and “Crosby” inscriptions in the barn may be further indication that the Greek Revival house replaced an earlier house. This style of house would not have been built before the 1820s. Deed research definitively traces ownership back to Nathan Crosby. A search under the name Nathan Crosby did reveal a conveyance in 1823 which might be this property based on the description of some abutters (Book 999011/ Page 335). The property is described as containing “an old dwelling house.” This might be further proof that the existing house replaced an INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 3315 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 A, G BRE.43 earlier house. Perhaps the “old dwelling house” is the modest Cape that was incorporated into the Crosby Mansion built by Nathan’s son Albert. The Crosby Mansion web site described this Cape as the home where Albert was born and raised. He was born in 1823, the same year Nathan Crosby bought the parcel on County Road with the “old dwelling.” It is unknown exactly when Nathan Crosby built the Greek Revival-style house, but it was a style in vogue from the 1820s until ca. 1850. According to Simeon Deyo’s History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts: 1620-1890, Nathan Crosby, Jr. was born in Brewster in 1793. As a young man, he went to Chatham as an apprentice to a tanner, and in 1819, with his younger brother, Roland, became proprietor of the establishment. That same year he married Catherine Nickerson of Chatham. In 1835, Crosby sold his interests in Chatham, and returned to Brewster and, according to Deyo, “erected, near the place of his birth on the shore of Cape Cod bay, the house in which the last years of his life were passed.” Crosby was thereafter primarily engaged in the fishing industry, owning many vessels at different times, and from 1851 to 1854, was working in Chicago with family members (his son Albert became a prominent businessman in Chicago, making his fortune producing distilled alcohol). In 1904, through two transactions, the estate of Nathan Crosby conveyed a portion of his property that included this house to his daughter-in-law, Matilda Crosby, wife of Albert Crosby (Book 264/Page 583, Book 264/Page 586). It is unclear why she acquired this property; Albert and Matilda had built the imposing Crosby Mansion, Tawasetha, in 1888. Albert died in 1906 and Matilda died in 1928. It is unclear how they came to own it, but in 1936, Samuel P. and Helen N. Sears of Brewster conveyed this property to J. Herbert and Frances B. Marble of Haverhill (Book 519/ Page 160). The property changed hands five more times and, as of 1986, is owned by Patricia and Robert Rabin of Brewster (Book 4896/ Page 150). This parcel is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District adopted in 1973. 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. Deyo, Simeon L., ed., History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts: 1620-1890, New York: H. W. Blake & Co., 1890. Barnstable County Registry of Deeds www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1880), State Census (1855) www.crosbymansion.com/index.php/history Brewster Assessor sketch. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 3315 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 A, G BRE.43 Photo 2. 1980 Form B photo. Photo 2. View of side elevation and rear ell from Crosby Lane, looking east.