Georgian Cape

Ebenezer Fisher House // c.1764

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This historic Georgian-era house at 677 South Street in Wrentham, Massachusetts, is one of the town’s most historic and unaltered dwellings. Dating to about 1764, the Georgian Cape farmhouse replaced an earlier house formerly owned by Dr. Cornelius Kollock, the town doctor and later purchased by Ebenezer Fisher. The home is said to have burned and was replaced by the present building around 1764. It is unclear if the original 17th century home was largely rebuilt or if the existing house now was built from the ground up. The home has historically (and even today) been known as the Wampum House, said to have been named after “Wrentham’s last Indian.” This claim highlights a common but harmful misconception that no Indigenous peoples survived colonization and its impacts in New England. However, the name Wampum’s Corner and the Wampum House remain. The house is today owned by the Wrentham Historical Commission, and operates as a historic house museum, though is suffering from some deferred maintenance. It would be important for the community to fully document the home’s history, namesake, and tell a more complete and accurate history of this historic house.

Boyden-Clark House // c.1725

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Wrentham, Massachusetts, was originally known as Wollomonopoag, roughly translating to “place of shells” a name given by the native tribes living here, referencing to area lakes as a food source for the people living here for over 8,000 years before European settlement. The area was settled by colonists in 1635 and became part of Dedham, when it was established in 1636. In 1673, the General Court allowed for the separation of what is now Wrentham, to incorporate as its own town. The community adopted the name Wrentham after the town in Suffolk County, England, a small village of just under 1,000 residents. About 50 years after incorporating, this historic Georgian farmhouse off Cumberland Road, not far from the Rhode Island state line, was built. The Boyden-Clark House is among the few pre-Revolutionary era homes remaining in the suburban community and retains its rural character. The house is said to have been built for Thomas Boyden (1681-1771) and wife, Mary (Clark) Boyden around 1725. The Boyden’s enslaved laborers who worked the farm here for decades. The property was later owned by Stephen Clark who farmed the land and likely added the stone well in the front yard. The house retains its gambrel roof and central chimney, hallmarks of the Colonial era.

Baker-Merchant House // c.1750

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

One of the most historic and architecturally unique houses in Warren, Rhode Island, is this pre-Revolutionary cottage on Main Street, that was modernized in the mid-19th century for later owners. Historians state that the house was built by Jesse Baker (1708-1751), who must have died shortly after its completion. At the time of the British burning of Warren during the Revolution in May 1778, Jesse’s widow resided here and saved the modest cottage from the hot embers of the adjacent burning Baptist Church, parsonage and arsenal by wetting every blanket and sheet in the house and spreading them over the roof of the home. The once modest, gambrel-roofed Georgian cottage, was purchased in 1868 by Dr. Joseph Merchant, a physician and surgeon, who “Victorianized” the house to the eclectic beauty we see today. Dr. Merchant added the projecting two-story corner tower, two-story front entry vestibule with Rundbogenstil tripartite window which reads like a Palladian window, projecting eaves with brackets, and stickwork in the north gambrel roof. The home was later inherited by Dr. Merchant’s daughter, Mary, and her husband, Howard K. DeWolf. 

Daniel Smith House // c.1750

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Daniel Smith House at 362 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, stands out in the neighborhood as an uncommon gambrel-roofed Georgian-era residence, but it was not built here! The home was built by about 1750 for Daniel Smith, and may possibly date to around 1725 a year after he was deeded land from his father and the same year he married his wife, Dorcas Harris. If the home does indeed date to around 1725, it would likely be the oldest extant house in Providence! The home was originally located across town on Chalkstone Avenue, and moved to the present site on Benefit Street in 1982 to save it from institutional expansion by Roger Williams Hospital. The hospital set a date to demolish the farmhouse, then covered in asbestos siding, and offered the building for free to someone who could move it off the site. After tense weeks and a nearing deadline, Angela Brown Fischer, a real estate executive, agreed to pay the costs to move the building across town to a site on Benefit Street, where it remains today. The home was put back together and restored by Newport-based architect, Richard Long, who worked as principal architect for the Restoration Foundation of Newport before opening a private architectural practice. What a great preservation success story!

Samuel J. Nutter House // c.1750

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Samuel J. Nutter House on Indian Pond Road in Kingston, Massachusetts, is a fairly rare example of a half-cape Georgian-era home in New England. Local history states that the house dates to before the American Revolution and was constructed as an early half-cape, with an off-center door flanked by two bays of windows. The small house form would allow the owner to add on additional bays to make it a 3/4- (has a door with two windows on one side and a single window on the other) or full-cape (with a central door and two windows on each side) as the family and prosperity grew. This house was built as a half-cape and has not changed in its over 275-year existence, besides the addition of a barn and one-story connecting addition to it. The house was originally located elsewhere in town, but was relocated to the site in about 1830 by Samuel Nutter (born Nutt and changed his name in 1825), who married Mercy Washburn that year. The Nutter Family farmed here until the early 1900s.

Cobb-Bartlett House // 1754

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Cobb-Bartlett House at 240 Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, was built around 1754 for Gershom Cobb (1717-1799) where he raised his family. The gambrel-roofed Georgian house was built before the revolution, and may have originally been a half-cape and expanded to a full-cape in the late 18th or early 19th century. The property was sold by Cobb in 1768 to Captain Joseph Bartlett, and the property remained in the family for generations after his death in 1788. The house is a well-preserved example of a Cape style house with large, central chimney and clad with cedar shingle siding and roof.

Knight-Tutt House // c.1750

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Knight-Tutt House on Franklin Street in downtown Marblehead, Massachusetts, is a great example of a pre-Revolutionary Georgian home built for the working class. The house, like its neighbor, has a three-bay, side-hall facade with a large, central chimney. The residence was built around 1750 for William Knight (1722-1799), who worked as a shoreman, loading and unloading the many ships that docked in Marblehead harbor. By 1850, the house was jointly owned by an F. Bateman and William Russell Tutt, a shoemaker. The residence remains one of a large number of well-preserved Colonial homes in the town of Marblehead, a testament to preservation planning and its effect on streetscapes and vibrant communities.

Orcutt-Ford Homestead // c.1751

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

In about 1751, Emerson Orcutt (1713-1777) purchased land in North Abington, Massachusetts, and built a half cape for his family. In 1762, Orcutt sold some of the land to John Ford, who was later a Lieutenant in the Continental Army, and according to local tradition, Ford added the other half of this current Georgian Cape house, giving it the current configuration. Character defining architectural details include an entry surround with fluted pilasters, and dentil cornice band on the main facade, 12-over-12 sash windows, and the central chimney, which would have heated both sides of the house. The property remained in the Ford family for over 100 years, and has since been converted back to a single family residence. Today, the charming pre-Revolutionary cottage is one of the oldest extant houses in Abington.

Wellman-Fisher-Richardson House // c.1745

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Fisher-Richardson House in Mansfield, Massachusetts is considered to be one of the oldest buildings in the suburban town. The home dates to sometime between 1743 and 1751 and was built for its original owner Ebenezer Wellman (1720-1776). The property was eventually owned by Lemuel Fisher, who in about 1800, doubled the size of the house adding its western half. When Lemuel died in 1820, the property was inherited by his youngest son, Daniel, a farmer and blacksmith who also built a gristmill nearby. The home was later inherited by Daniel’s daughter, Evelina and her husband, Captain Ira Richardson. By 1930, the gambrel-roofed Georgian house was in disrepair, and the owner at the time contacted SPNEA (now Historic New England) who drafted an agreement to acquire and restore the house. However, as local interest in the property increased, the owner deeded the property to the town, and the town took on the costs of restoration. The property is now managed by the Mansfield Historical Society.

Harkness House // c.1730

Buildings of New England1 Comment

The award for the cutest house in Newport goes to this c.1730 beauty on Green Street! This charming Georgian cape house sits just one-and-a-half stories tall under a squat gambrel roof. The house was originally located at the corner of Thames Street and was moved at least twice until it was placed on its present site by the Newport Restoration Foundation, after they acquired it in 1983, restoring it soon after. The center-hall house has just two rooms on each floor with a central staircase and chimney. The small dormers add some light to the second floor without compromising the historic and architectural integrity of the cottage.