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FORM B BUILDING
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Photograph
View from NW.
Locus Map (north at top)
Source: Mass GIS Oliver Parcel Viewer.
Recorded by: Kathryn Grover & Neil Larson
Organization: Brewster Historical Commission
Date (month / year): December 2018
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
56-55-0 Harwich I BRE.333
NRHD 2/23/1996
Town/City: Brewster
Place:(neighborhood or village):
Brewster Center
Address:126 Long Pond Road
Historic Name: Consodine Homestead
Uses:Present: single-family residence
Original: single-family residence
Date of Construction: ca. 1940
Source:deeds, historic atlases
Style/Form: Colonial Revival / two-thirds cape
Architect/Builder: unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: concrete block
Wall/Trim: wood shingles / wood
Roof:asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage, late 20th century
Major Alterations (with dates):
Window sash replaced
Condition:good
Moved: no yes Date:
Acreage:3.50
Setting: The house is situated in a dense residential area
characterized by summer cottages and retirement homes
built in the mid-20th century.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 126 LONG POND ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
I BRE.333
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
The Consodine Homestead was established in ca. 1867 and may still contain features and connected outbuildings consistent
with that date; however, the front portion of the house visible from Long Pond Road clearly shows evidence of having been
constructed much later, probably ca. 1940. A more intensive examination of the building is necessary to develop a construction
history for the property.
The one-story wood frame dwelling is a faithful replica of a house type common in the 18th and early19th centuries (not so much
1867) known as a “two-thirds cape,” as it represents only a portion of the traditional New England center-chimney house. It has a
three-bay front façade with an off-center entrance on the easterly side in front of a massive end chimney. The concrete block
foundation, contemporary wood shingle siding (these materials may have been renewed even more recently), reproduction
doors and six-over-six wood windows, and reused bricks in the chimney are all indications of mid 20th-century Colonial Revival
materials and construction methods. Connected outbuildings, including a barn, could predate the house; a detached two-car
garage is an even later addition.
The buildings are situated in the northwest corner of a large 3.50-acre parcel with a long frontage on Long Pond Road and a
portion abutting Harwich Road. The house and adjacent large meadow are screened from the road by thick foliage, and the
easternmost section is completely wooded.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
Although a plaque on the house associates it with John Consodine in ca. 1867, a visual assessment of exterior design and
materials suggest a mid-20th century construction date. The property’s ownership history traces it back to Consodine, and it has
been conveyed up to current times by his descendants. The front section of the house more likely was built for John Consodine’s
daughter Katherine Consodine Phinney or her son Herbert in 1936-1940. The construction features of rear wings as well as the
interior of the house as a whole could not be assessed and warrant further investigation.
In early January 1867, Brewster attorney George Copeland sold 1.25 acres on “the new road leading to the depot,” bounded on
the east and north by Copeland’s own land, to John Consodine. Born in Ireland in 1841, Consodine came to the United States in
either 1859 or 1861 (census records offer both dates), and in September 1862 he enlisted in Company E of the Fifth
Massachusetts Infantry. His regiment served in New Bern, Goldsboro, and Washington, North Carolina, and lost only sixteen
men, all to disease; Consodine was mustered out in July 1863. He was farming and living in Dennis in January 1865 when he
married Bridget Kearns, who came to the United States from Ireland in 1860 or 1861 and was then living in Dennis. The couple
had three children—John Anthony, Thomas Patrick, and James Simon—in Brewster by 1870, and they are all listed in the 1870
census with the surname “Constantine.”1 The 1870 census credits John Consodine with $475 in real estate, and he had very
likely built a dwelling on Long Pond Road by that time.
By 1880 John and Bridget Consodine had two more children, Katherine and William Israel, and John Consodine and his eldest
son John A., then 13, are listed in the census as farm laborers. The 1880 Brewster map attaches Consodine’s name to the 90
Long Pond Road house. Brewster tax records for 1890 list Consodine with a horse, two cows, carriages, a house assessed at
$250, a barn at $50, and a one-acre homestead valued at $40. In 1900 only he and his wife Bridget lived in the Long Pond Road
house. In 1894 daughter Katherine had married Bourne carpenter Augustus N. Phinney, and son William Israel was a wholesale
beef merchant in Worcester and Fall River; in 1922 he acquired the former Elijah E. Knowles homestead as a summer home.
Sons John A. and Thomas P. lived together with Thomas’s wife Clara Rogers Consodine and a domestic servant in another part
of Brewster; John A. kept a livery stable, and Thomas was a blacksmith. In 1903 Clara Consodine opened her childhood home
1 The birth records of all the Consodine children give their mother’s name as Agnes, even though censuses and other vital records show her as
Bridget.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 126 LONG POND ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 2
I BRE.333
as the Consodine House (BRE.1993) on Main Street. John A. Consodine ran the hotel’s livery stable and drove both school
children and visitors, while Thomas maintained his blacksmith shop. The Consodine House remained in business until 1950.
John and Bridget Consodine continued to own and occupy their house at 126 Long Pond Road in 1910, and in 1918 Bridget
Kearns Consodine died just short of her eightieth birthday.2 By 1920 John Consodine was working as a gardener at a private
estate, and the elderly widow Desire Doane lived in and kept house. John Consodine died in February 1928 at his home and
was at that time one of the two remaining Civil War veterans living in Brewster.3
In 1922 Consodine had transferred title to his Long Pond Road homestead to his unmarried son John A. Consodine, who
continued to live in his late brother’s Main Street household. He died in October 1936, and the property then passed to his sister
Katherine Phinney, then living in Boston with her son Herbert Augustus Phinney, a Catholic priest. She immediately transferred
title to herself and her son Herbert. Soon after, the current house was constructed. Katherine Consodine Phinny died in Boston
in April 1939, and her son Herbert owned the property until 1972. In that year he deeded it to his son and namesake and Joseph
L. Hughes Jr. of Hingham. After Herbert A. Phinney Jr.’s death Hughes added his wife Nancy to the title for 126 Long Pond
Road, and they were owners of the property in 2018.4
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
American Ancestors.org. Massachusetts vital, tax, and probate records.
Ancestry.com. Federal and state censuses, vital records, historic maps, and “Valuation List of the Town of Brewster 1890.”
Barnstable Patriot Digital Newspaper Archive. Sturgis Library website,
http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/APA/Sturgis/default.aspx#panel=home.
Brewster Assessors’ Records, Brewster Town Clerk Archives and 1926 Town Report.
Deyo, Simeon L. History of Barnstable County, Mass. New York: H. W. Blake Co., 1890.
Freeman, Frederick. The History of Cape Cod: The Annals of Barnstable County. Boston: George C. Rand and Avery, 1858-62.
Otis, Amos. Genealogical Notes on Barnstable Families. 2 vols. Barnstable, MA: Patriot Press, 1888.
Sears, Henry J. Brewster Ship Masters. Yarmouthport, MA: C. W. Swift, 1906.
Simpkins, John. “Topographical Description of Brewster.” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 10 (1809): 72-79.
MAPS
Walling. Henry Francis. Map of the Counties of Barnstable, Dukes & Nantucket, Massachusetts. Boston: 1858.
Atlas of Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1880.
Atlas of Barnstable County Massachusetts. Boston: Walker Lithograph & Publishing Co., 1910.
2 “Brewster,” Hyannis Patriot, 8 April 1918, 4.
3 “Death of John Consodine,” Hyannis Patriot, 2 February 1928, 9.
4 John Consodine to John A. Consodine, 3 March 1922, BCD 446:538; Katherine A. Phinney, Boston, to Rev. Herbert A. Phinney and
Katherine A. Phinney, 26 October 1936, BCD 521:327; Herbert A. Phinney, Boston, to Herbert A. Phinney Jr., Boston, and Joseph L. Hughes
Jr., Hingham, 29 September 1972, BCD 1731:101; Joseph L. Hughes Jr., Hingham, to Joseph L. Hughes Jr. and Nancy B. Hughes, Hingham,
17 September 1979, BCD 2985:39.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 126 LONG POND ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 3
I BRE.333
PHOTOGRAPHS (credit Neil Larson, 2018)
Detail of northwest corner of house showing modern materials.