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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
15-49-0 Dennis BRE.C,
G
BRE.60
Town/City: BREWSTER
Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster
Address: 373 Stony Brook Road
Historic Name: Sears, Thomas and Elizabeth House
Uses:Present: Residential
Original: Residential
Date of Construction: ca. 1830
Source:Deed research, vital records
Style/Form: Federal/ Full Cape
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Ashlar granite block
Wall/Trim: Wood shingles/ Wood
Roof: Wood shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Large outbuilding (see Photo 2)
Major Alterations (with dates):
Rear additions (dates unknown)
Condition: Good
Moved: no yes Date:
Acreage: 1.00 acres
Setting: This house is set on the north side of Stony Brook
Road on an original short loop that connects back to the
main road. The surrounding area is residential and rural in
nature with both historic and more recent houses, most set
on large parcels. In general, the historic dwellings are set
closer to the street than later houses. This house is set
relatively close to the street on a slight rise. The house is
surrounded by lawn and the perimeter of the parcel remains
forested. There is an outbuilding to the east of the house
that is largely screened from the street by shrubbery and
trees.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 373 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
BRE.C, G BRE.60
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 interesting example of an early-19th century, Federal-style Full Cape. Contrasting this house to the Colonial-era Full
Cape at 311 Stony Brook Road (BRE.58), it can be seen that this house is more compact and the front and rear stud walls are
higher, resulting in the windows no longer abutting the roof cornice trim. This house rests on a slightly raised ashlar granite block
foundation. The walls are clad in wood cedar shingles with plain cornerboards. The roof is also clad in wood cedar shingles and
has a modest molded box cornice across the front (and presumably rear). A large brick chimney is centered on the roof ridge.
The centered location of the chimney is typical of Full Capes and indicates the interior arrangement of rooms around the
chimney core.
Fenestration consists primarily of wood, 9/6, double-hung sash set in flat surrounds that are slightly projecting. The elegant front
entrance includes a six-panel wood door set in a surround with tapered pilasters, a transom with Bulls-eye lights, and a molded
lintel above. The pilasters and lintel reach up through the cornice trim of the roof, further emphasizing the height of the front
elevation. This same detail is found on another Federal-style Cape at 679 Stony Brook Road, (BRE.64). The side elevations also
have 9/6 windows on the first and second story. There is a rear ell that is largely obscured from the street, but as the attached
Assessor sketch indicates, consists of multiple components, including a screen porch.
The property includes a large, one-story, side-gable outbuilding, a former cranberry screen house (see Photo 2). This building
has a large barn door on the front elevation and wood, 2/2 double-hung sash.
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 house is described in early deeds as the homestead of Thomas Sears. Thomas Sears (1797-1873) married Elizabeth Sears
(same surname) of Dennis in 1826. They had three children, Charles, David H., and Thomas D. Sears. He worked as a
cabinetmaker/carpenter, which may explain the elegance of the front door surround. He began to assemble land in West
Brewster, beginning in 1830 with a purchase of one acre of cleared land (Book 7/ Page 102). He did not move far from his
family; his father, Reuben Sears, lived at 311 Stony Brook Road (BRE.58), and his brother, Elijah Sears, lived at 347 Stony
Brook Road (BRE.59). It seems likely that this house was built shortly after buying this first piece of cleared land for his growing
family. Thomas would also eventually own cranberry bogs in the vicinity.
The house passed to his middle son, David H. Sears (1836-1898). David married Laura Crosby (1838-1937) in 1862, and they
had three children. David H., like his father, was a carpenter (he was listed as a house carpenter in the 1870 and 1880 US
Census). It is unclear whether David H. Sears’ family ever lived in this house. They were living in Dennis in 1870, and the
Brewster house was sold by David Sears in 1875 to John Dugan.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 373 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
BRE.C, G BRE.60
John Dugan (1836-1918) emigrated from Portugal in 1850. He was listed as a “farmer” and “general farmer” in the 1900 and
1910 US Census, respectively. The bam to the side was used as a cranberry screen house by Dugan. He owned cranberry bogs
and part of the processing of the cranberries after they were picked was to screen them.
In 1927, the estate of John Dugan sold 12 acres, including this house, to Evelyn A. Clarke of Brewster (Book 450/Page 103).
The property was described as a portion of what was conveyed to him by David H. Sears, and further described as “tillage and
pasture land, with buildings thereon formerly the Homestead of Thomas Sears.” That same year, she sold a smaller portion of
this property to Margaret Babcock and Ruth Welch, both unmarried, of Providence, RI (Book 450/Page 559).
Margaret Babcock (1889-1975) was a public school teacher and Ruth Welch was also a public school teacher, teaching French.
Margaret remained unmarried all her life. Ruth Welch had been married and living in Iowa, but was a widow by the time she was
living with Margaret. In 1935, they sold this house to Eliot Hubbard, Jr. of Cambridge, MA (Book 514/Page 98).
Eliot Hubbard, Jr. (1893-1977), graduated from Harvard College in 1915 and married Elizabeth Freeman Thaxter in 1917. He
also graduated from Harvard Medical School and was a physician in private practice. This property passed to their daughter,
Celia Thaxter Hubbard. Celia Hubbard was noted for opening the Botolph Group art gallery on Newbury Street in Boston in the
1950s. She was interested in religious and modern art and by the 1960s, her gallery was nationally known as a hub of modern
religious artistic expression, and exhibited artists such as Sister Corita Kent (noted for her painting of the Boston Gas
Company’s gas tank near the Southeast Expressway).
In 2013, Celia Hubbard’s estate sold this property to Gillian Mackenzie of New York, NY (Book 28248/Page 62).
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.
Barnstable County Registry of Deeds
www.ancestry.com - Vital records, US Census (1850, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1940)
www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2013/08/28/celia-thaxter-hubbard-cambridge-artist-gallery-became-hub-modern-
religious-artistic-expression/7wxYL3BiccB5AUABCiCXFP/story.html
Brewster Assessor sketch.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 373 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 3
BRE.C, G BRE.60
Photo 2. View of outbuilding to the east of the house, looking northwest.