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HomeMy Public PortalAboutStonyBrookRd_1139, BR.308Follow 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 47 2 0 Dennis BRE.C,G,I BRE.308 Town/City: BREWSTER Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster Address: 1139 Stony Brook Road Historic Name: Clark, Jeremiah and Margaret house Uses:Present: Residential Original: Residential Date of Construction: ca. 1836 Source:Deed research, vital records Style/Form: / Half Cape Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Mortared fieldstone Wall/Trim: Wood shingles/ Wood Roof: Asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Barn, shed (19th c.) Major Alterations (with dates): Demolish rear ell, new rear addition, new windows (2015) Alteration of front elevation (post-1986) Condition: Good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 3.49 acres Setting: This house is located on the north side of Stony Brook Road near the intersection with Main Street. The surrounding area retains its rural character with conservation land across the street and a few historic and contemporary houses set close to the street. This house is set relatively close to the street on a parcel that rises gently from the street. A clamshell driveway leads to a large barn to the northwest of the house. The house is surrounded by lawn and minimal foundation plantings. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 1139 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 BRE.C,G,I BRE.308 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 house currently has a Half Cape form with large rear ell/addition built in 2015. As can be seen in the attached 1986 Form B photograph (Photo 3), the current version of the Half Cape form is not original. The current form was part of the 2015 alterations. The 1986 photograph shows what appears to have been a one-story addition with low-pitched hipped roof that spanned the front elevation. Perhaps this began as a porch that was later enclosed. In 2015, the main roof slope was carried down to incorporate this building element. The original form of the house was also likely a Half Cape, but the front elevation had a higher stud wall, as can be seen in the 1986 photo (a height that is matched on the rear elevation). This higher stud wall typically indicates a Cape that was of 19th century construction. The 1986 Form B states that this house was built ca. 1750, but Capes from the Colonial period typically had a much lower profile and the windows and door would be set into the roof trim (see e.g. 311 Stony Brook Road, BRE.58). This Colonial-era detail was created here with the 2015 alterations. The building rests on a mortared fieldstone and cement foundation. The house is clad in wood shingles with plain cornerboards. The roof is clad in asphalt shingles and has a box cornice across the front elevation and narrow two-part frieze boards on other elevations. A large square brick chimney rises off-centered from the main roof ridge. The front elevation has the three-bay configuration with off-centered door characteristic of Half Capes. Fenestration on the front elevation consists of replacement 9/9 double-hung sash set in flat casings that abut the roof eave (a detail characteristic of Colonial-era Capes, as noted above). Fenestration on the other elevations consists primarily of replacement 6/6 double-hung sash. The front entrance also has a flat casing which abuts the roof eave. Located to the northwest of the house is a large barn, now converted to a garage (see cover photo). The barn has an “English” form, meaning the primary barn doors are on the side elevation as opposed to the gable end. 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 1986 version of this Form B dates the house to ca. 1750 and states that it was built for Margaret Clark, sister of Isaiah Clark. As noted above, however, the form of the house is not consistent with a house built in the 18th century. In addition, this house is shown on the 1880 Barnstable County Atlas under the name Mrs. M. Clark, who is likely the same Margaret Clark referred to in the 1986 Form B, as is explained below. The 1986 Form B states that Margaret Clark was the sister of Isaiah Clark who was “an early owner of the large white late- Georgian house to the west of this house.” This refers to 1073 Stony Brook Road (BRE.70), which was built by Capt. Isaac (not Isaiah) Clark in 1803. The connection to this branch of the Clark family is unclear, but Margaret Clark (b. 1811) was the sister-in- law of Isaiah Clark (b. 1811). Another brother-in-law, William Clark (b. 1808), built and owned the Swift house on Route 6A (an old Assessor reference, address unknown). Ann Crocker, who owned 1139 Stony Book Road in 1986, was a Swift. She came to Brewster with her family in the 1940s from Tenafly, NJ. She was told by Harry Clark that his grandfather built this house and the INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 1139 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 BRE.C,G,I BRE.308 kitchen used to be a chicken coop. This refers to Jeremiah Manter Clark. Jeremiah Clark (1814-1851) was the brother of Isaiah and William Clark. He married Margaret Thayer in 1836, and they had one son, George A. Clark. If Jeremiah built the house, it would likely have been shortly after his marriage to Margaret. Jeremiah, who worked as a farmer, died relatively young in 1851. Margaret Clark continued to live here with her son. The house is shown on the 1880 County Atlas map under the name Mrs. M. Clark. It appears that upon the death of Margaret Clark, the house was sold via an executor’s deed to Bartlett B. and Ann M. Winslow. Bartlett Winslow (1829-1909) had started a stove and tin plate business in 1854 in a store on the north side of Main Street and in 1866 bought land at the west intersection of Stony Brook Road and Main Street and partnered with Benjamin Freeman, 2nd to build a larger store under the firm B. B. Winslow and Company, “in which was carried on the stove and tin plate business, in connection with the grocery trade” (Deyo, p. 905). In 1902, the Bartletts conveyed this property to Joseph E. Dugan of Brewster (Book 254/Page 153). The deed referenced a dwelling house and outbuildings and also included a separate cranberry swamp. Joseph Dugan was born in Portugal in 1857. He immigrated to the US in 1885, and married Mary Dugan (1871-1916, same last name) in Brewster in 1894. They were living with her parents in Brewster until they bought this house, and he was working as a farmer laborer (1900 US Census). In the 1910 Census he is listed as owning his own farm, presumably this property and the cranberry swamp. In 1920, Joseph Dugan, now widowed, sold the property to Elizabeth R. and William I. Considine of Ashmont, MA (Book 369/ Page 466). This deed stated that the land comprised 5 acres and again referenced a cranberry swamp. The house then passed in 1923 to Alfred E. Kauler of Somerville who had married Wilma Considine, Alfred Kauler’s eldest child. According to the 1986 Form B, Kauler ran a meat market at the house for many years until WWII. In 1953, the estate of Alfred Kauler sold the property to Jackson H. and Ann S. Crocker of Brewster (Book 859/ Page 566). Jackson was a semi-retired carpenter and builder. In 1991, Jackson Crocker, living in Lake Worth, FL, sold the property to Karen E. Birdsey of Brewster (Book 7681/ Page 170). It remained in the Birdsey family until 2014, when Christopher and Barbara Birdsey of Hyannis sold the property to Mark Pellegrini and Ellen O’Donnell of Brewster (Book 28341/ Page 119). This property is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District (adopted 1973) and the house and 19th century barn are contributing resource 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 Bowman, George Ernest, ed., Vital records of the Town of Brewster to the End of the Year 1849, Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants: Boston, MA, 1904. Deyo, Simeon L., ed., History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts: 1620-1890, New York: H. W. Blake & Co., 1890. www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1850, 1860, 1870, 1900, 1910) Brewster Assessor sketch. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 1139 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 BRE.C,G,I BRE.308 Photo 2. View looking northwest. Photo 3. 1986 Form B cover photograph.