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HomeMy Public PortalAboutStonyBrookRd_1073, BRE.70Follow 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): June 2017 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 36-33-0 Dennis C,G,I BRE.70 Town/City: BREWSTER Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster Address: 1073 Stony Brook Road Historic Name: Clark (Clarke), Capt. Isaac House Uses:Present: Residential Original: Residential Date of Construction: 1799 Source:Building records Style/Form: Federal Architect/Builder: /Phillip Burrill Exterior Material: Foundation: Brick Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard Roof: Asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Gable-front barn, windmill and pump house (late-19th/early- 20th c.) Major Alterations (with dates): Long rear ell (extended in 19th c.) Two-story addition with rear additions/alterations (early-20th c.) Condition: Good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 1.81 acres Setting: This parcel is located on the north side of Stony Brook Road. This stretch of Stony Brook Road is sparsely developed with conservation land and Smith Pond across the street and a few historic and contemporary dwellings on varying sized lots. This parcel slopes up from the street and is formally landscaped with expanses of lawn, specimen trees and mature plantings. A circular driveway extends behind the house. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 1073 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 C,G,I BRE.70 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 imposing Federal-style house is a fraternal twin to the Elijah Cobb House at 739 Lower Road (BRE.96). Both houses are believed to have been constructed in 1799 by builder Phillip Burrill of Boston. Although built the same year, the Cobb House is classified as late-Georgian in style, while the Clark House is more representative of the subsequent, more refined, Federal style. This five-bay, two-story, house with rear additions rests on a brick foundation. The building is clad in painted wood clapboard. Between the clapboards and the foundation is a molded skirt board. There are prominent pilasters on all four corners of the main block (the Cobb House has Georgian-style quoins). The hipped roof is clad in asphalt shingles. Matching tall brick chimneys rise from the two side slopes of the hipped roof. The roof has a molded box cornice with dentils (teeth-like molding) below. The front elevation has a centered main entrance which consists of an eight-panel wood door flanked by pilasters and surmounted by a semi-elliptical fanlight. An entrance portico is supported by columns and the open pediment of the portico roof has a denticulated cornice. The Old King’s Highway National Register District nomination speculates that this portico may date to the early-20th century. Sets of two windows are aligned vertically on the first and second story on each side of the entrance and a window is centered above the entrance. All of the windows have wood 6/6 double-hung sash with projecting molded surrounds and projecting sills. Similar, widely-spaced windows are found on the side elevations of the main block. The rear kitchen ell appears to have been extended in the 19th century, and the large two-story addition with hipped roof and recessed porch extending from the northwest corner of the house was built by Homer Clark in the early-20th century. The property includes a tall gable-front barn and an adjacent windmill (water tower) and pump house (see Photo 3). According to the Old King’s Highway National Register nomination, the barn dates to the mid-19th century, and the windmill dates to the turn- of-the century and is the only one to survive in the district. It is more likely that both the barn, windmill and pump house were built between 1880 and 1905. The windmill blades were removed (date unknown), but the water reservoir remains. No outbuildings are shown on the 1880 Atlas map, but the barn is shown directly behind the house and the windmill is shown in its current position on the 1910 Atlas map (see attached detail of 1910 Atlas map), and a 1905 deed refers to the barn and other outbuildings. The current owner, Elizabeth Elliott, believes that the barn could have been moved to its current location next to the windmill by her grandfather, Homer P. Clark, after he bought the property in 1905 and installed the circular driveway that extends behind the house. 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 house is located in West Brewster, on a road that was originally part of Old King’s Highway. Laid out in 1665, Old King’s Highway, also historically referred to as King’s Highway and County Road, was the region’s major east/west corridor. In Brewster, the original route followed Stony Brook Road, avoiding the wetlands and marshes associated with Quivett Creek and Stony Brook. By the mid-19th century, causeways and bridges were built across tidal and wetland areas allowing for the straightening of Old King’s Highway, including northwest of this house near the Dennis town border. Mill sites on Stony Brook became an important economic engine and led to early development in West Brewster, including extant residential resources from the 18th and 19th century along Stony Brook Road. The name “Stony Brook Road” was in use by the early-20th century. The Clark family owned property that included this land starting in the late 1600s. There was a house on this property when this house was built in 1799. The new house was built very close to the older one, which the Clark family refer to as the Kimball Clark House, and that older house was demolished once the new one was completed. The new house was built by Capt. Isaac Clark (1761-1819). According to the 1973 version of this Form B, “Here in 1802 met the petitioners for the separation of Brewster INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 1073 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 C,G,I BRE.70 from the town of Harwich. After the granting of the incorporation of Brewster by General Court of Massachusetts February 19, 1803, Issac [sic] Clark was unanimously elected the town's first representative to that body. Captain Clark was the first American sea captain to fly the new American flag into the White Sea in Russia. From Archangel he brought the timber for this home. The west door comes from the Captain Kimball Clark house, built over a century earlier.” Isaac Clark served as a State Representative from 1803-1812. Elijah Cobb was captain of the Ten Brothers and was accompanied by Captain Isaac Clark, and two other captains. During the voyage, Captain Clark and the other two captains died of Black Water Fever off the coast of Africa, and the Ten Brothers was scuttled out of concern for contagion upon its arrival in Boston. Isaac and his wife, Temperance (1764-1859), had ten children. Upon her death in 1859, four of her children – Strabo Clark, Edmund S. Clark, Albert P. Clark and Mary P. Mayo - conveyed the eastern half of the house to their sister, Temperance Baker (Book 81/Page 60). According to the deed, this was done, “In consideration of services and money paid for the support and maintenance of the late Temperance Clark by Temperance C. Baker, widow.” In the 1850 US Census, Temperance Baker and her two sons, Benjamin C. and Edmund, are listed as living with Temperance Clark. Her husband, Capt. Benjamin Baker, had died in 1844. Temperance Baker (1802-1887) appears to have gained full control of the property in 1881 when John H. Clark of Brewster conveyed “part of a Dwelling house” to her (Book 141/Page 243). Temperance’s son, Benjamin C. Baker (1841-1891), inherited the house from his mother. Like his father, Benjamin C. Baker was a mariner, and was captain of the William H. Besse which, according to family history, was the boat that sailed closest to the eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in 1883 and had its passengers survive. His wife, Mary (Tucker) Baker (1842-1915) was on board with her husband. In 1905, Mary E. Baker, living in Middleboro, sold the property to Homer P. Clark of St. Paul, MN (Book 274/Page 74). According to the Clark family, Homer Clark decided to purchase the property and keep it in the Clark family because Mary Baker was prepared to sell it outside the family. Homer Clark (1869-1970) was married to Elizabeth (Dunsmoor) Clark (1886-1977). Homer became chairman of the board for the West Publishing Company. The house remains in the Clark family. The current owner, Elizabeth Elliott of Falls Church, VA, is the granddaughter of Homer Clark and great-great-great granddaughter of Isaac Clark. This property is located within the Old King’s Highway local historic district (adopted 1973) and the house, barn, windmill and pump house are contributing resources in the Old King’s Highway National Register District (listed 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 King’s Highway National Register District nomination (listed 1996) Oral history – Elizabeth Elliott (5.22.17) www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1850, 1860) https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=15208966 (Isaac Clark) https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=46344838 (Homer P. Clark) Brewster Assessor sketch. Detail of 1910 Barnstable County Atlas. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 1073 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 C,G,I BRE.70 Photo 2. View of rear ells/additions, looking east. Photo 3. View of barn, windmill and pump house, looking north.