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Home My Public Portal AboutMainSt_844Follow 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 NE. 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 26-33-0 Harwich C, G BRE.506 Town/City: Brewster Place:(neighborhood or village): West Brewster Address:844 Main Street Historic Name: Drake Family Cottage Uses:Present: single-family residence Original: single-family residence Date of Construction: ca. 1925 Source:deeds, historic atlases Style/Form: Summer Cottage/gable block Architect/Builder: unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: concrete block Wall/Trim: wood shingles/wood Roof:asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: garage, ca. 1925 Major Alterations (with dates): rear porch enclosed Condition:excellent Moved: no yes Date: Acreage:0.32 Setting: The house is situated in a dense residential area characterized by summer cottages and retirement homes built in the 20th century. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 844 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 C, G BRE.506 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 Drake Family Cottage, built ca. 1925, is a one-story wood frame single dwelling with a gable roof extended front and rear to cover deep porches. The front porch has shingled knee walls and a center entrance flanked by wide openings; although not visible, the front wall of the cottage likely contains a center door flanked by windows in the manner of the porch. The end walls each contain a single window centered in the first story and a smaller, square attic window in the gable. The east end also contains a small square window to the front of center. The rear porch has been enclosed with shingled walls with awning windows on all three sides. A doorway is located on the west side of the porch where it joins the main block of the cottage. The land slopes down from the highway to expose a basement and the underside of the rear porch at grade. There is a window in the concrete-block basement wall on the east end, and what had originated as an open area under the rear porch has been walled in with windows and a central door. A shed-roof shower stall is attached to the rear wall east of the doorway. The house is situated close to the highway set back behind a small yard, with the rest of the small lot covered with lawn. It enjoys a picturesque and expansive view of a large marsh to the south. A driveway enters the westerly side frontage and descends to a parking area in front of a wood frame one-car garage appearing contemporaneous with the cottage. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: In April 1910, the heirs of Charles J. Briggs (790 Main Street, BRE.231) sold seven acres with a house, barn, and outbuildings on the south side of Main Street in West Brewster to Grace Nevin Reed for an undated sum.1 This was probably the Briggs homestead, and according to at least one local account Reed and her family lived here for some years after the acquisition. By 1925 they had had a cottage built on part of the property and sold it that year, though they might have built the dwelling earlier and used it for its rental income. Born in New York State in 1882, Grace Nevin Reed was the daughter of Robert and Mary E. Nevin and the wife of farmer Alford (or Alfred) Reed, a native of Fowler, New York. The two had married in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1900, and by 1910 they were living with her mother and brother Alexander in Woodstock, though they are also listed with their sons MacMann (or MacMin) and Albert Earl on Main Road in Brewster. Alford Reed was a farmer in Woodstock and a shell fisherman in Brewster. By 1920 the couple was enumerated in North Brewster and had two more children—Vera and Grace—both born in Massachusetts. In 1922 Alford Reed took out a mortgage on this property, eight adjacent acres he had acquired, and another 10-acre parcel. The Reeds apparently lived on this West Brewster property until 1928, when they moved to the east part of town; the 1930 census clearly shows them in East Brewster, where Alford Reed was a cranberry grower. In 1925 Grace Reed sold the 844 Main Street cottage and a tract of unspecified extent to Luman Chester Drake Jr. of Framingham, whose family has continued to own it into the current day.2 They have used it as a summer and seasonal residence. Born in Massachusetts in 1880, Drake was working as a teamster when he married Irish immigrant Delia Manning in 1900, and by 1920 the couple had eight children between the ages of one and fourteen. Drake worked as a teamster and truckman until 1935, when he became a contractor in Framingham. He died by May 1937, when his children deeded the Main Street property to his widow Delia. In 1951 she sold the property to Chester Drake Sons, Inc., of Framingham, who in 1994 sold it to David and Judith Drake, trustees of Seldom Inn Realty Trust. This trust owned the cottage in 2019.3 1 Celia Briggs, Charles F. Briggs, both Brewster; Daniel Briggs, Boston; and Frank H. Briggs, New York NY, to Grace Nevin Reed, 4 April 1910, BCD 300:412. 2 Grace N. Reed to Luman C. Drake Jr., Framingham, 8 August 1925, BCD 395:153. 3 Annie E. Cashman, Arthur H. Drake, William F. Drake, Daniel W. Drake, Eleanor K. Drake and Marion A. Drake, Framingham, to Delia M. Drake, Framingham, 29 May 1937, BCD 528:273; Delia M. Drake, Robert A. Drake, and Henrietta C. Drake, Framingham, to Chester Drake Sons, Inc., Framingham, 15 August 1951, BCD 831:14; Chester Drake Sons, Inc., Framingham, to David and Judith Drake, trustees Seldom Inn Realty Trust, Holliston, 29 December 1994, BCD 9533:310. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 844 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 C, G BRE.506 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. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET BREWSTER 844 MAIN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 C, G BRE.506 PHOTOGRAPHS (credit Neil Larson, 2019) View from SW. View from NW.