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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
25-27-0 Dennis BRE.C,
G, J
BRE.64
Town/City: BREWSTER
Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster
Address: 679 Stony Brook Road
Historic Name: Foster, Josiah and Susan House
Uses:Present: Residential
Original: Residential
Date of Construction: Late-18th or early-19th c.
Source:Deed research
Style/Form: Federal/ Full Cape
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Fieldstone (mortared)
Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard/ Wood
Roof: Wood shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage/barn, built 2004 (see Photo 3)
Major Alterations (with dates):
Rear shed-roofed addition (2007)
Condition: Good
Moved: no yes Date:
Acreage: 1.48 acres
Setting: This house is set on the north side of Stony Brook
Road. The surrounding area is residential and rural in
nature with both historic and more recent houses, most set
on large parcels. This house abuts Dillingham Cemetery to
the east, and there is very large parcel across the street that
remains forested, giving this house a uniquely isolated
setting. The house is set back from the street on a rise. A
broad lawn extends from the house down to the street and a
gravel driveway extends from the street to a barn behind the
house.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 679 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
BRE.C, G, J BRE.64
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 intact example of a 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 slightly more compact and refined in massing and the front windows no longer
abut the cornice trim. This house rests on a mortared fieldstone foundation. The walls are clad in painted wood clapboards with
narrow cornerboards. The roof is clad in wood cedar shingles and has a molded box cornice with partial returns across the gable
ends, and the trim below the cornice on the front elevation is ornamented with dentils (teeth-like molding). A large, corbelled
brick chimney is centered on the roof ridge. The centered location of the chimney was typical of Full Capes and indicates the
interior arrangement of rooms around the chimney core.
Fenestration consists primarily of wood, 6/6, double-hung sash set in broad, slightly-projecting surrounds with projecting sills.
Interestingly, there are two small wood, 2/2 windows set close to the roof eaves on the second story, a common feature on
Capes of this period, but they are only found on the right side gable and not the left. The elegant front entrance has a six-panel
wood door flanked by tapered pilasters and surmounted by transom lights and a molded lintel above. The pilasters and lintel
reach up to the cornice trim of the roof, further emphasizing the height of the front elevation. This detail is also found at another
Federal-style Cape at 679 Stony Brook Road, (BRE.60). There is a one-story rear ell (see Photo 3).
The property includes a barn/garage built in 2004 with an English barn form (as opposed to New England form). English barns
have the main barn opening on a side elevation (see Photo 3), whereas New England barns have the opening on the end
gables.
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 Assessor date for this house is 1800, but it is unclear whether it was built in the late-18th or early-19th century. Deed
research traces ownership back to Josiah Foster who, in 1834, sold this property with a dwelling house and 10 acres to Joseph
H. Sears and Elisha Bangs. No prior deed records were discovered which reveal when Josiah Foster bought this property and
whether a dwelling was in place at that time. This may be due to the fire in 1827 which burned almost all the records in the
original Registry of Deeds. While some were re-recorded, many deeds were lost. What is known is that he married Susan
Howes of Dennis in 1828, so if he built this house, it might have been done soon thereafter.
As noted above, in 1834 Josiah and Susan Foster sold the property to Joseph H. Sears, Master Mariner, and Elisha Bangs.
Josiah Foster reserved the right to use a workshop on the south side of the property (i.e. near the County road). Foster also
owned land that was used for saltworks, so perhaps the workshop was associated with that business.
In 1844, Joseph Sears and Elisha Bangs sold the property for $400 to brothers Alvan (Alvin) and David Newcomb (Book
34/Page 153). This deed referenced a dwelling house, two small buildings, and reserved to Sears and Bangs the workshop
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 679 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
BRE.C, G, J BRE.64
formerly occupied by Foster. In the 1850 US Census, Alvan (b. ca. 1814-1896) and David (b. ca. 1817-1893) were living one
house apart from each other with their families, and both were listed working at “sea.” On the 1858 Map of Cape Cod, this house
is shown next to the Dillingham Cemetery owned by “D. Newcomb.” It is unclear why the brothers purchased the house together,
although there was a pattern of this property having more than one owner.
In 1899, the heirs of David Newcomb sold this property, still 10 acres, to Charles E. Alexander of Brewster. Charles Alexander
was born in Providence, RI in ca. 1851 and married Margaret Ellis in Brewster in 1868. They had three children and Alexander
worked as a “home farmer.”
Following his death in 1934, Charles Alexander’s heirs sold the property in 1938 to his youngest son, Arthur C. and Margaret A.
Alexander of Brockton (Book 541/Page 466). Arthur (1873-1954) worked as a cutter in a shoe factory (1930 US Census) and
then as a stationary firefighter (1940 US Census). They lived in Brockton during their ownership of this property. In 1962,
Margaret Alexander recorded a plan showing the current parcel size and sold this parcel to John M. and Diana H. Davis of
Brewster (Book 1172/Page 270). The holder of their mortgage sold the property in 1966 and the property has changed hands
four times since then, always to owners who did not list Brewster as their home.
This property is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District (adopted 1973) and the house is a contributing
resource in the Stony Brook/Factory Village National Register District (listed 2000).
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 (1840, 1850, 1860, 1880, 1920, 1930, 1940)
Brewster Assessor sketch. 1969 Building Form photo.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 679 STONY BROOK ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 3
BRE.C, G, J BRE.64
Photo 2. View looking west.
Photo 3. View looking southwest.