BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
ORM B - BUILDING - Am e a A MUILLt JAN 2 4 1990 2>> FORM NO. IASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION O BOYLSTON STREET OSTON, MA 02116 Photos 20:12 38 detail, summei beam, rear room originally Collins - Lord House) Town Address Ipswich - 009 52 Jeffrey's Neck Road 20:13 detail, summer beam and post, south wall, left-hand room Historic Name Ross Tavern 20:14. detail, summer beam and post, north wall, left-hand room Use: Present Residence 20:15 detail, summer beam at south wall, left-hand chamber Original Residence 20:16 left-hand chamber DESCRIPTION 20:22 original piece of dentil molding Date late 17th century laid against original molded board A.L.
Cummings: which partially covered the exterior Source visual analysis girt 20:27 I-shaped sunmer beam, left-hand room Style First Period 22:28 Left-hand room Architect Unknown research and 20:32 south and west facades SKETCH MAP Exterior Wall FabricClapboards Outbufldings Barn; small buildings re- erected from another Ipswich site Major Alterations (with dates) 2 houses moved from other Ipswich sites and joined to tavern: 1930s -Jeffrey's Neck Rid Condition Good Moved From lot next to southerly àbuttment of Choate bridge, Ipswich Date 1940 part of Acreage -Newmarch St. Setting 31.8 acres parcel On crest of a hill, surrounded on three sides by distant views of salt marsh and inlets.
REFERENCE S QUADRANGLE LE: Z E N 19 / 350-170 / 4728-680 Ipswich 1:25,000 Recorded by Anne Grady Organization Boston University Date July 1986 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Cormuni ty : IPSWICH Form No: Property Name: Ross Tavern Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. SIGNIFICANCE The Ross Tavern retains integrity of materials, design and workmanship in the First Period features of the two 17th century buildings it incorporates. embody distinctive characteristics of form and construction under Criterion C. The evidence for exterior embellishment of the Ross Tavern is among the most significant surviving expressions of First Period architecture in New England.
The cyma molded overhanging girt, the crease molded coverboard, the crease molded dentils and the red point are prime expressions of what Cummings identified as the "distinctly elegant regional school" of architecture which developed in Ipswich at the end of the 17th century. EXTERIOR DESCRIPTION The Ross Tavern is, in its main body, 5 bays wide and one room deep. There is a wing to the right hand side and a large ell to the rear. house is composed of two earlier houses moved on to the site and restored by Daniel S. Wendell. The main body of the house was dismantled and moved from an earlier Ipswich site abutting the Choate Bridge. left-hand rooms and chimney bay comprised the original part of that structure. That single cell building was probably moved onto the Choate Bridge site between 1734 and 1736 and enlarged at that time by the addition of the right-hand rooms.
In the 19th century the building became known as the Ross Tavern. The rear ell, originally the Collins-Lord house on High Street (just south of 33 High Street), was also dismantled and moved by Wendell. In 1940, a kitchen wing was added to the right-hand side of the two reconstructed and restored 17th century houses and a small lean-to was built next to the ell at the left rear. The house was restored to a high style First Period appearance by Daniel Wendell on the basis of very specific physical evidence. The clapboarded exterior has gables on the front and rear facades (restored from evidence ofmortises in the plate), and a deep two story entrance porch originally was proven by mortises on the outer face of the framing). All the gables have molded verge boards (unweathered ends of the purlins on the exterior indicated an original verge board).
There are elaborately embellished overhangs at the second story on three sides and in each of the gables. The second story overhang had been closed in for a number of years before the house was dismantled. Wendel1 found three cyma molded overhanging girts, mitered at the corners (the posts above have a right angled tenon which helps to hold the mitered ends together). The girts are supported from beneath at the centers by the projecting rounded ends of the I summer beams of the left-hand room. At the corners, the overhanging girts are supported by brackets (restored on the basis of impressions in the wood on the underside of the girts, but with conjectural profiles). A board with crease molded edge partly covers and extends above the girts (several original pieces of this cover board survive; one original piece of girt with cover board attached is in SPNEA's architectural museum).
Halfway up the cover board was positioned a board crease molded on the edge and cut into dentils (a single piece of Staple to Inventory form at botton INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORI CAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commmity: IPSWICH Form No: 38 Property Name: Ross Tavern Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. pattern of weathering and a faint remainder of red with dentils survived in a reused position in aint ou the lower cover board made it clear where the dentiled board should be placed). Square blocks with incised patera-like designs are placed every 2 feet or so in the dentil course. The designs are conjectural, but paint and nail hole evidence on the cover board indicated the presence originally of square blocks in these location. The final element in the assemblage of trim at the overhang is at the top.
The molding profile is conjectural, but the pattern of weathering on the board below the molding suggested to Wendell the amount that the molding above must have projected. nearly identical trim of the overhang in the gables was derived after similar reasoning. Ihe pilastered central chimney dates from 1940. Fenestration on the original part of the Ross Tavern is leaded glass casements, three part windows on the first and second floors; two-part windows on the porch and in the gables. The windows on the second floor were restored to their original central locations based on evidence of mortises in studs. the first floor only the left-hand most window on the facade could be from physical evidence, but since posts run up the center of the wall, either the windows were originally off-center, or there were two windows. The entrance door is a simply framed vertical board door.
The rear ell, originally the Collins-Lord house, retains its plainly-finished overhang on the rear wall. On has the first floor, the ell casement windows with rectangular panes, leaded glass and fixed transoms above. The presence of transoms was indicated by a fragment of stud or jamb Wendell found while dismantling the High Street house. MAJOR FIRST PERIOD FEATURES First Period features are visible in the left-hand room and chamber and in the rear ell. The left-hand room exhibits two unusual framing features: I shaped summer beams and two sets of joists at right angles to each other. The summer beams, I shaped in order to provide support for the overhanging girts on 3 sides, have flat chamfers and lamb's tongue stops at the outer walls and where the summer beams join.
(Wendell thinks originally the summer beams may have had guarter-round chamfers as does the summer tie beam upstairs, but that Ralph Burnham who restored the house in the 1920s may have shaved off the quarter-round). summer beams are supported by posts with bevel-molded heads. Joists in the room are slightly chamfered and are spaced 21 inches on centers. The second set of in the inner bay, needed to provide à structure onto which to nal1 61005 boards, are shallower than the primary joists and are halved over the primary joists. As a further refinement to secure the floorboards, the inner edge of the overhanging girts are rabbetted to receive the edges of floorboards. The shadow-molded sheathing on the fireplace wall was replicated from fragments found elsewhere in the house.
- 2- Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Community : IPSWICH Form No: 38 Property Name: Ross Tavern Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued belor. In the left-hand chamber, the summer tie beam has quarter-round chamfers, flat collars and lamb's tongue stops. The south window in the chamber retains an original jamb of plain, rectangular design. The rear ell, now 27 feet long by 18 feet wide, was originally a double cell, central chimney house. Currently the ell is composed of one large room with crossed summer beams. Clearly there have been alterations to the original structure including the removal of the central chimney. At the junction of the two crossed summer beams, the flat chamfered longer summer beam is finished with a triangular stop and two pips.
A small house on the property is the frame of another Ipswich building, of probable First-Period endeel beleveshe bullding mantlede bored to this clapboarded only on its upper portion and gable ends for the frame lower Wendell speculates that the building may have had the framing members where it was not clapboarded. The frame of the building has the unusual feature of purlins which are cambered upward in the middle so that where they are attached to the middle rafter in the two bay building, they more effectively resist the downward thrust of the rafters. HISTORICAL INFORMATION Tbºthe"8übec$8iated with the early 20th centurhighly competent ama- restoration movement, a very careful restoration by a teur architectural historian. The restoration brought to light many distinctive features of the houses, several of which are unique extant examples of their form in New England.
The crossed joist and the girts rabbetted for floor boards fall within that category. Rabbetted girts were known in English buildings of the period, however. The evidence for transoms found by Wendell in the Collins-Lord house provided one of two known examples of First Period transom window evidence for ALC. Unfortunately, we do not know the identity of the wealthy client who commissioned the elaborately decorated Ross Tavern. The house is first mentioned in a deed of 1736 on a site near the Choate Bridge, but must have been constructed elsewhere by an unknown party and moved to the second site. The Collins-Lord house was built c. 1675-1700 by Robert Collins or Robert Lord Sr. REBERENE5Ne11 Cummings, Massachusetts and its First Period Houses: Publication of the Colonial Society in Massachusetts 51:156-157 Abbott Lowell Cummings, Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725.
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979: 127. -----, pp. 74, 76, 77 126, 127, 129,136, 137, 148, 150, 153, 162, 194. Note: HABS drawings are not entirely accurate. According to Wendell, the tenon in the overhanging girt is incorrectly drawn. The drawings were made c. 1933 before the building was dismantled. - 3- Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORI CAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston Commnity: Form No: 38 IPSWICH Property Name: Ross Tavern Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION The Ross Taveri is situated at the top of a hill on a 32 acre parcel on which there are several other buildings.
The Tavern was to this location in the twentieth century and is not historically related to the other buildings on the hill, thus, a line of convenience of 100' by 100' has been årawn around the dwelling. Staple to Inventory form at bottom NPS Form 10-900+ (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page OMB Asprovel No. 1024-0018 1/24/40 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR State Nomination/Type of Review Date/Signature Freoper heluuByu 3/9190 1. Putnam, Deacon Edward, Jr., House Entered in the Nat1onal Register 72. Putnam, James, Jr., House antered in the Nat1onal Register '73.Ross Taverni Gabisteritson Sorsom Attest HReeper AeloueByu 3/9/50 Attest J Keopor BetlL. Sauese 3/%/20 74. Sawyer House Entered in the National Register 75.
Smith House Entered 1n the Hational Rogister IKeeper AelouByew 3/2/90 Attest VReeper_ Aelmeßyu 3/9/90 Attest 16. Smith, Hazadiah, House Entered 1n the Hational Register HReeper AulresByu 3/9/92 Attest 77. Thorndike, Capt. John, Houtered 1n the CReeper AulvueaByan 3/5/90 National Register Attest Entered in the 78. Titcomb, Benaiah, House VReeper ( Natlonal Register SlelisBgun 3/9/90 79. Tufts, Rev. John, House Entered in the National Register Attest Keeper C Xulmusbyen3/9/90 80.
White--Ellery House Entered in the National Register Attest / Stelmueßger 3/9190 Attest NPS Form 109008 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page_ SUPPLEMENTARY LISTING RECORD NRIS Reference Number: 90000235 Date Listed: 03/09/90 Ross Tavern Essex Property Name county First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR Multiple Name OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 MA state exceptions, in the nomination documentation. BIYAL Sarg Asignature of the Keeper ====== ===- ============ Amended Items in Nomination: 03/09/90 Date of Action Geographical Data: Acreage The correct acreage is <1. This information has been confirmed with Ann Tait, MASHPO, by telephone.
DISTRIBUTION: National Register property file Nominating Authority (without attachment) UNZTED STATAN DERE PAENS OE TEE INTERIOR IATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEEI REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Ross Tavern NAME: MULTIPLE First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Essex DATE RECEIVED: 1/24/90 DATE OF 16TH DAY: 2/23/90 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 2/07/90 DATE OF 45TH DAY: 3/10/90 DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: REFERENCE NUMBER: 90000235 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: N PDIL: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: COMMENI WAIVER: N LACCEPT _RETURN ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N SLR DRAFT: Y NATIONAL: REJECT 3/9/4 OAZE RECOM./CRITERIA Adcept C REVIEWER DATE PLINE Aetiti hurel Etistory DOCUMENTATION see attached comments ysee attached SIRIN CLASSIFICAIION count resource type STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION FUNCTION historic DESCRIPTION current architectural classification materials descriptive text SIGNIFICANCE Period Areas of Significance--Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other BIBLIOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHICAL DATA acreage UTMS verbal boundary description boundary justification ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION/PRESENTATION _USGS maps photographs _sketch maps OTHER COMMENTS Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Phone presentation Signed Date Ipswich, MA Poss Tavern 52 Jeffrey's Neck Re detcul.
sunner becen 1985 Ist Perid Buldligs of E. Ma, TR Ipsurch. Ress Tavern 52 Jeffreys NeckR deteeel, sinner. p 1st Porcdl Bullines af E. Ma, 12 Ipswrch, MA Ross Tavenn 52 Jeffey's neckr detael: sumner+p 1985 Ist pered Bulding of E. Ma, TR Ipswich, TA Russ Tavern 52 Jeffrey's Nect n detael: sumnes 1985 Ist Po.idl Buldiy: er E.Me, TR 52 Jeffrey's Neck Ipsr Ross Tasern left-hard chambe 1985 Ist Perid Puldrys ef Ee Ma, TR Ipswich, TH Ross Tavern 52 Jeffrey's Reck, egtaad gint mole 1985 Iat Peridl Buldinas d E. Ma, TR Ipswrch, iA Russ Tavern s2 Jeffey's Neck i T-shaped scmner 1985 Ist Perid Buldines of F.Ma, TR Ipsurch. TA 52 Jeffregs neckR Ross iavern Ceft-hand com 1985 Ist Perad Buldins o Te, Ma TR 5a geffrey's Neck.
Ipswich Ross Tuvenn sauthr wvest facades 1985 Ist Porid Builds ys d Ma, TR 1985 Ist Perid Buldinesof En Mr, TR 21:00 Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000281