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HomeMy Public PortalAboutStonyBrookRd_909, BRE.306Follow 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 35-16-0 Dennis C,G,J BRE.306 Town/City: BREWSTER Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster Address: 909 Stony Brook Road Historic Name: Winslow, Kenelm House Uses:Present: Residential Original: Residential Date of Construction: ca. 1722 Source:Family history Style/Form: / Full Cape Architect/Builder: Unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: Fieldstone Wall/Trim: Wood clapboard/ Wood Roof: Asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Small shed Major Alterations (with dates): Two rear ells (ca. 1838) Replacement windows, post-1997 Additions to west ell, 1930s and ca. 2010 Condition: Good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: 2.66 acres Setting: This parcel is located hill east of Stony Brook and opposite the intersection with Run Hill Road. This property rises from the street and mature trees and plantings greatly obscure the house from the street. This stretch of Stony Brook Road is developed with a mix of historic and contemporary dwellings on varying-sized lots. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 909 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 C,G,J BRE.306 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 Colonial-era Full Cape with rear additions. According to the Stony Brook/Factory Village National Register nomination, this is the oldest extant dwelling in the district. Noteworthy is the scale, including the width of the main block of the house, with fenestration broadly spaced. The 1 ½-story building rests on a fieldstone foundation. The walls of the main block are clad in wood clapboard with plain cornerboards, and the rear ells/additions are clad in a combination of wood shingle and wood clapboard. The roof is clad in asphalt shingles (wood shingles originally) and has a molded box cornice on the front elevation with narrow trim (or frieze) boards below, and narrower trim boards on the side elevations. A large, square brick chimney rises, slightly off-center, from the main roof ridge. The Stony Brook National Register nomination states that the offset chimney suggests that the house may have been expanded from a Half Cape, and a report prepared for the owners in 2001 by Allen Charles Hill, AIA speculates that unusual framing suggests that the house was expanded in the early-18th century from “the c. 1690 or c. 1709 First Period structure that tradition holds it to be.” The front elevation is characteristic of the Full Cape form, with a centered entrance flanked by two evenly (and broadly) spaced windows on each side. The front entrance has a four-panel wood door set in a Greek Revival-style surround with full sidelights and pilasters (see historic view, Photo 2). The door lintel is set into the roof cornice trim, a feature often seen on Colonial-era Capes. Fenestration on the front elevation consists of narrow, wood, 9/9 double-hung sash set in projecting molded frames with flared lintels that are also set into the roof cornice trim. The west side elevation has one similar 9/9 window and replacement 6/6 double-hung sash. There is also a bay window with 2/2 windows on this elevation which may date to the 19th century. In an undated photo of this elevation, the bay window has 6/6 double-hung sash (see Photo 3). The east side elevation has 1/1 windows, which replaced wood 6/6 and 2/2 double-hung sash sometime after 1997 (see Photo 4). There are a series of rear ells/additions. The main block was extended by two rear ells in ca. 1838 when the house was internally divided to serve the needs of two branches of the Winslow family (see Photo 5, undated). The National Register nomination speculates that the Greek Revival-style front entrance might date to the time of these alterations. These ells were subsequently modified and expanded in the early-20th and early-21st centuries (see Assessor sketch for current footprint of ells). Historic photographs show a number of outbuildings behind the house. There is now one gable-roofed outbuilding set on a sloping part of the property with a cement block foundation. The Winslow/Johnson family has long referred to it as the cranberry house, and it dates to at least the early-20th century (see Photo 5). 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. According to the Stony Brook/Factory Village National Register District nomination, this house is the earliest surviving house in the district. The nomination further states that the house was connected to the Winslow family who “dominated the district and its industries throughout most of its history.” INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 909 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 C,G,J BRE.306 One of the current owners, Eleanor Johnson, is a descendant of the original owners. According to a family history prepared by her and husband Peter Johnson, this house was built ca. 1722 by Kenelm Winslow (4). His grandfather, Kenelm Winslow (2) purchased land in Stony Brook in 1680 and built a house located between Lower Road and Quivett meadow, west of Stony Brook. Kenelm (2) died in 1715 and his son, Kenelm (3), inherited the property. Kenelm (4) “succeeded to the homestead in Harwich” upon his father’s death and 1728 and “built a fulling mill on Stoney Brook about 1728.” However, the 1726 school list suggests that Kenelm (3) and son Thomas lived together, or near each other, and Kenelm (4) lived separately, and may have built or acquired a home elsewhere, i.e. 909 Stony Brook Road. This would mean that the house dates to the early 18th century. West half: William Winslow, who had started a tannery at Stony Brook in ca. 1830, conveyed the west half of the house to his daughter Julia A. and to Sarah A. Winslow, daughter of Kenelm (7). By 1935, the west half had passed to May F. Winslow (unmarried) who conveyed her interest to Herbert Smith of Dobbs Ferry, NY (Book 514/Page 143). In 1964, Herbert W. and May C. Smith conveyed their interest to the children of their deceased son, William Winslow Smith, Eleanor S. and Winslow S. Rogers when they reached the age of 21 in 1965. In 1978, Winslow S. Rogers and Kathryn S. Rogers of St. Louis conveyed their interest to Peter and Eleanor Johnson (Book 2726/Page 317). East half: Kenelm (7) conveyed the east half to his son, John H. Winslow, and then to John’s daughters, Mae Foster Winslow and Sarah Emma Winslow Dunnells. Grant Locke, husband of Ruth Dunnells Locke (daughter of Sarah Winslow Dunnells), conveyed the east side to Clark Potter in the early-mid 1970s. He in turn conveyed it to Peter & Eleanor Rogers Johnson and Kathryn S. & Winslow Smith Rogers in 1977. In 1990, Eleanor and her husband Peter Johnson bought out Winslow & Kathryn Rogers’ interest in the east half, and this transaction unified the property under one ownership. This property is located within the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District (adopted 1973) and the house, but not the outbuilding, is a contributing resource in the Stony Brook/Factory Village National Register District (listed 2000). BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Hill, Allen Charles, AIA, “A Chronological Assessment of the House at 909-911 Stony Brook Road, Brewster, Massachusetts,” 2001 (unpublished). Johnson, Peter, “Musings on Winslow West Brewster Property,” undated, (unpublished) Stony Brook/Factory Village National Register District nomination (listed 2000) Brewster Assessor sketch. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 909 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 C,G,J BRE.306 Photo 2. Undated historic view of front elevation, barn to left no longer extant. Photo 3. Undated historic view of west elevation, looking northeast. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 909 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 4 C,G,J BRE.306 Photo 4. View of east elevation (1997 Stony Brook/Factory Village National Register District nomination). Photo 5. Undated historic view of rear ells (partial), looking southeast. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 909 STONY BROOK ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 5 C,G,J BRE.306 Photo 6. View of “Cranberry House” looking northwest.