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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): June 2017
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
15-47-0 Dennis BRE.C,
G
BRE.59
Town/City: BREWSTER
Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster
Address: 347 Stony Brook Road
Historic Name: Sears House
Uses:Present: Residential
Original: Residential
Date of Construction: Early-19th c. (possibly older)
Source:Deed research
Style/Form: /Salt Box and Half Cape
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Fieldstone
Wall/Trim: Wood shingles/ Wood
Roof: Asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Two sheds, outhouse (see Photos 4 and 5)
Major Alterations (with dates):
One-story east ell
Rear dormers (1970s)
Condition: Good
Moved: no yes Date:
Acreage: 1.20 acres
Setting: This house is set on the north side of a short loop
off of present-day Stony Brook Road. The surrounding area
is residential and rural in nature with both historic and more
recent houses, most set on large parcels. There is no
pattern to the orientation of the houses to the In general, the
historic dwellings are set closer to the street than later
houses. This house is set relatively close to the original
road on a parcel that slopes down gently behind the house.
The house is surrounded by lawn and informal plantings.
Outbuildings are located to the east and northwest. The
parcel abuts undeveloped land to the north. The present
driveway leading to the house was originally part of Stony
Brook Road. In 1950, the road was moved further south
away from the house.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 347 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
BRE.C, G BRE.59
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 Architectural Description is adapted and expanded from the 1980 version of this Building Form)
According to the 1980 version of this Building Form, the original portion of the house is the two-story, saltbox portion, and the
Half Cape portion was moved to this site and added at a later date. The origins of the Half Cape and the date it was added are
unknown.
The front elevation of the main block appears to have been reconfigured, and now consists of entrances set at both ends of the
elevation. Fenestration consists primarily of wood 6/6 double-hung windows set in flat surrounds. Interestingly, the two windows
on the left side of the first story are narrower with 4/4 windows set in slightly projecting frames, possibly indicating that they were
added at a later date.
The Half Cape section of the house also has 6/6 wood windows which are set up into the cornice trim (a feature sometimes
found on Colonial-era Capes). Unlike the main block, this Cape portion has a projecting molded box cornice. The front entrance
has a paneled wood door with four small lights. The door is set in a surround with unusually broad pilasters.
A one-story ell, built as a summer kitchen, extends from the right side of the main block. Wood for this addition came from
dismantled salt works in Sesuit Harbor, South Dennis. This ell has wood 2/2 windows and a large fixed window on the rear
elevation. A broad wall dormer was added to the rear roof slope of the main block and a large shed dormer on the rear roof of
the Half Cape.
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.
This property was originally a working farm with orchard (still existing), cranberry bog (now in disuse), and a large garden (on
land on the other side of Stony Brook Road). Like many properties in West Brewster, the early history of this house is connected
to the Sears family. This house was owned by Reuben Sears in the early-19th century. He was living next door at 311 Stony
Brook Road (BRE.58). For a time, Reuben Sears owned both houses. No prior deed records have been discovered which reveal
how or when the Sears family came to own this property. This may be due to the fire in 1827 which burned almost all the records
in the original Registry of Deeds. While some deeds were re-recorded, many were lost. According to the 1980 version of this
Form B, the house is thought to have been built ca. 1750 by virtue of its architectural details. According to Simeon Deyo’s The
History of Barnstable County, Reuben Sears was the inventor of the rolling roof to cover saltworks vats in case of rain.
In 1840, Reuben Sears conveyed this property, which included a dwelling house, shop, barn, mill and other outbuildings, to his
son, Elijah B. Sears (Book 24/Page 369). That same year, Elijah also bought five acres of tillage and pasture adjoining his
father’s land south of the County road. Around the same time, Elijah’s brother, Thomas Sears, built the neighboring house to the
east, 373 Stony Hill Road, BRE.60. From the 1840s on, Elijah was subsequently involved in numerous transactions of swamp,
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 347 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
BRE.C, G BRE.59
cranberry bog and upland. Elijah married Catherine Crowell (b. 1828) in 1860; it was a second marriage for Elijah. According to
US Census records, Elijah worked as a trader (1850), merchant (1860) and huckster (1870).
In 1868, Elijah and Catherine Sears conveyed this property to Mordecai E. and Nancy B. Perry of Brewster (Book 951/Page
532). In this deed, Elijah reserved the right to collect that year’s hay. Two years later, the Perrys conveyed this property to Eilert
and Olive Wefer of Brewster (Book 102/Page 160). Two years after that, the Wefers conveyed the property to Rufus Clark of
Brewster (although the deed was not recorded until 1940, Book 567/Page 106). Rufus Clark (1836-1924) married Amanda Ping
in 1859 and they had eight children. Rufus worked as a fisherman (1880 US Census) and mariner (1900 Census). After Rufus
died, their niece Lois Ellis (Mrs. Charles R. Ellis) lived in one part of the house and took care of Amanda, who lived in the other
part.
In 1940, the estate of Rufus Clark conveyed the property to Mary H. Aiken (Book 572/Page 205). Mary (Hoover) Aiken (1905-
1992) was a painter whose studies included training under Charles Hawethorne at his famed painting school in Provincetown.
Two of her paintings were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in
London. She was also Conrad Aiken’s third wife. Conrad Aiken (1889-1973) was a renowned poet, short story writer, novelist
and critic. He won the Pulitzer prize for poetry in 1930. They married in 1937 and lived in England until they bought and restored
this farmhouse. They continued a tradition they started in England of hosting a small group of resident pupils for “informal work
in painting and writing.” The terms lasted nine weeks in summer, and the school was called Forty-One Doors. They were living in
Savannah in 1973 when Conrad died. Mary Aiken continued to own the house until 1986 when she conveyed joint ownership to
herself and Joseph Killorin of Savannah. The house has remained in the Killorin family.
This property is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District (adopted 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.
Aiken, Conrad and Mary Hoover, “Forty-One Doors - A summer School for Writing and Painting,” (undated).
Barnstable County Registry of Deeds
Deyo, Simeon ed., The History of Barnstable County, 1890.
Oral history - Mary H. Aiken (owner in 1980)
www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900)
www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-mary-hoover-aiken-1559685.html
Brewster Assessor sketch.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 347 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 3
BRE.C, G BRE.59
Photo 2. View looking northeast.
Photo 3. View of rear elevation, looking southwest.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 347 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 4
BRE.C, G BRE.59
Photo 4. Shed on left and barn foundation on right, east of house.
Photo 5. Shed and outhouse, northwest of house.