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HomeMy Public PortalAboutMainSt_2130Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.4/11 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): April 2019 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 68-129-0 Harwich B, G, I BRE.385 NRHD (02/23/1996); LHD (05/01/1973) Town/City: Brewster Place:(neighborhood or village): Brewster Village Address:2130 Main Street Historic Name: Isaac F. & Myra Cahoon House Uses:Present: single-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1891 Source:deeds, historic atlases Style/Form: Classical Revival/cross wing Architect/Builder: William F. Cahoon, possible builder Exterior Material: Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: wood clapboard & wood shingles/wood Roof:asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: workshop, 1892 Major Alterations (with dates): window sash replaced Condition:good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage:5.09 Setting: The building is in the midst of Brewster Village, which is largely residential but with religious, civic, and commercial properties mixed in and ranging in date from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2130 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 B, G, I BRE.385 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 Isaac F. and Myra Cahoon House, built ca. 1891, is a story-and-a-half wood frame single dwelling with a cross-gable plan and roof. The front gable section of the façade contains an entrance with a restrained trabeated architrave and a single window on the first story and two windows in the upper story gable. The edges of the raking cornices are distinguished by cornices and frieze boards terminating at short returns above paneled corner pilasters. Frieze boards also run along the eave lines on the side elevations and the front of a recessed two-bay cross-gable wing on the westerly side of the house. The rear elevation of the wing reduces to one story in height as the roof covers a rear porch. There are two windows on the easterly side wall. The house is situated in the northwest corner of an unusually deep rectangular lot set back behind sizeable front and side yards. A driveway enters the westerly corner of the frontage and expands into a parking area on the northwest side of the house. A second driveway connects to Williams Drive east of the house and runs across to a wood frame workshop (renovated into a garage and rental unit) in the rear yard. The rear of the parcel is wooded. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: In May 1891, Julia A. Pepper, the wife of Brewster mariner Bangs Pepper Jr., sold an undeveloped half-acre to Almira C. Cahoon (1853-1904) for $50.1 Cahoon was born Myra C. Linnell, the daughter of Sylvester and Sarah Linnell, in 1853 and had married Brewster mariner Isaac F. Cahoon (1845-1912) in 1871. The son of Francis H. and Diadama Cahoon, Isaac Cahoon was then a fisherman, and by 1880 he was living with his wife and children William F. and Myra E. in his widowed father’s house. He had no real property in 1890, according to tax records, but by late October 1892, when his wife took out a mortgage on the property she acquired from Julia Pepper in 1891, she referred to the property as her “homestead” and mentioned a house and outbuildings.2 In 1892 a shop owned by the late Captain Charles Freeman was moved to the Cahoons’ house lot, and in 1895 Isaac’s father Francis died at his son’s home.3 The 1900 census lists Isaac and Myra Cahoon in the household with sons William Freeman, Clarence A., and Elmer A., born between 1873 and 1884. William F. Cahoon was a carpenter, and it seems at least possible that he built the house for his parents.4 Isaac F. Cahoon married Myra Linnell in 1871 and worked as a fisherman at least through 1880; by 1900 he was doing’s day work. Daughter Myra was no longer part of the household, having married Brewster laborer Charles F. Briggs in February that year. Almira Linnell Cahoon died in February 1904, and shortly afterward the Briggses moved their family in with Myra’s father. The 1910 Brewster map attaches the name “I. Cahoon” to the 2130 Main Street house, and the census that year lists him as a widowed laborer doing odd jobs and living with son William, still a house carpenter; William’s wife Nellie Cragin, an Irish immigrant who was working as a cook in Brewster when they married in 1905; and their one-year-old son Edward F. Cahoon. In late July 1912 Isaac F. Cahoon died at Massachusetts General Hospital after an accident reported in the Yarmouth Register: The sad death of Mr Isaac Cahoon has cast a shadow over our town. Early last week, as he was going toward his home he was offered a lift on a friend’s automobile. It was but a short distance to his house and though urged to take a seat he preferred to stand on the running board. On getting off, he was not quite clear of the machine when it restarted and was thrown beneath the wheels. His leg was terrible injured. Dr. Crocker was soon in attendance 1 Julia A. Pepper to Almira C. Cahoon, 16 May 1891, BCD 196:376 2 Almira C. Cahoon to Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, 25 October 1892, BCD 203:326 3 “Death of the Oldest Man in Brewster,” Barnstable Patriot, 18 November 1895, 2. The article notes that Francis Cahoon was known as “Uncle Francis” and had been born “near the ponds which lie between Brewster and Harwich, on the fist day of January, 1806. . . . Artists who visited the Cape had many times painted and sent abroad his portrait as a rare specimen of the Cape Cod Fisherman.” 4 In 1897 William F. Cahoon bought 7 acres bordering his parents’ parcel from the heirs of Bangs Pepper Jr., who died in 1895. See Julia A. Woodbury, Beverly, and Charlotte A. Hopkins, Brewster, heirs at law of Bangs Pepper, to William F. Cahoon, 30 September 1897, BCD 230:173. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2130 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 B, G, I BRE.385 and with the assistance of Dr Marvel of Orleans the patient was made as comfortable as possible and appeared to be on the road to recovery, when, on Friday, dangerous symptoms were discerned and he was hurried to Boston for special treatment. All efforts were, however, unavailing and he succumbed to lockjaw on Saturday. Mr Cahoon completely exonerated the chauffeur and the latter is as much shocked at the untoward result of his neighborly act in offering his friend a ride. Mr Cahoon was highly respected by all in this town and his untimely end is universally lamented.5 The 2130 Main Street property passed to son William F. Cahoon, who is listed in this location in the 1920 with his wife Nellie and sons Edward and William Augustus, the latter born in 1911. Nellie Cragin Cahoon died in 1922, and in 1930 William F. Cahoon was living in the house with his second wife Ellen and son W. Augustus, a 19-year-old shell fisherman. In 1932 William F. Cahoon deeded the Brewster property to his son but was living there with his wife in 1940. He died in 1948, and in May 1953 son William S. sold 2130 Main Street to Robert B. and Adele C. Hooper.6 In 1957 the property was partitioned by the probate court, which sold 7.5 acres with the house and barn to Frank H. and Elizabeth B. Kynor of Orleans, who owned it until 1980. The owners of 2130 Main Street in 2019 are Keith R. Johnson and Patricia O. Johnson, the latter of whom bought a half-interest in the property in 2003.7 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. 5 “East Brewster,” Yarmouth Register, 3 August 1912, 8. 6 William F. Cahoon to William A. Cahoon, 20 December 1932, BCD 492:297; William A. Cahoon to Robert B. and Adele C. Hooper, 8 May 1953, BCD 842:189. 7 Prince H. Hurd Jr., commissioner, to Frank H. and Elizabeth B. Kynor, Orleans, 19 November 1957, BCD 991:400; Frank H. and Elizabeth B. Kynor to H. Christian Witte, Constance C. Witte, and Blanche F. Witte, Harwich, 30 September 1980, BCD 3162:321; James A. and Ruth A. McPheters, trustees McPheters Family Trust, to Keith R. and Patricia O. Johnson and Leonard W. and Patricia P. Johnson, 27 October 2003, BCD 17917:319; Patricia O. Johnson, 2130 Main Street, to Keith R. Johnson, 2130 Main Street, 10 November 2004, BCD 19250:16. See also “Plan of Land in Brewster, MA for H. Christian and Constance C. Witte,” 19 May 1980, BCP 346:53. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 2130 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 B, G, I BRE.385 FIGURES Plan of Land in Brewster, Mass. For H. Christian & Constance C. Witte, May 19, 1980 (BCD Plan 346:53) showing existing parcel with small parcel partitioned, now numbered 2146 Main Street. PHOTOGRAPHS (credit Neil Larson, 2019) View from east.