Built in 1736 in the Georgian architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
“The Josiah Dennis Manse Museum is a historic house at 61 Whig Street in Dennis, Massachusetts. The timber frame saltbox house was built c. 1736 as a home for Rev.”
Wikipedia article Josiah Dennis House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · built in 1736, Georgian architecture.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
This property stands in Dennis Town. History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890, published 1890 gives that township a chapter of its own.
The chapter covers the township.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Dennis Town - 32 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 42 fires within 5 miles of Dennis, Josiah, House between 2015 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 26 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 20 September 2020 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 19 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 13 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 5168 |
| 10 August 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 6 July 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 3592 |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 4,617 specimens collected within 10 miles of Dennis, Josiah, House between 1866 and 1975: 3,163 Animalia, 1,079 Plantae, 229 Fungi, 138 Chromista, 4 Bacteria, 3 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon; H. K. Svenson;D. Conant;J. Wicks and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Aecidium Pers. | 1900 | Seymour, Arthur Bliss | near Shoot-flying Hill [sic; Shootflying Hill], Hyannis, Mass. [Massachusetts] |
 | Uromyces lespedezae-procumbentis (Schwein.) Lagerh. | 1900 | A. B. Seymour | Hyannis |
 | Calidris alba (Pallas, 1764) | 1866 | not recorded | Cape Cod |
 | Alosa mediocris (Mitchill, 1814) | 1871 | MCZ team | Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
| Ceramium diaphanum (Lightf.) Roth | 1873 | Lusk | Cotuit Port | |
 | Ceramium rubrum C.Agardh | 1873 | Lusk | Cotuit Port |
 | Grinnellia americana (C.Agardh) Harv. | 1873 | Lusk | Cotuit Port |
 | Sphacelaria cirrosa (Roth) C.Agardh | 1873 | Lusk | Cotuit Port |
 | Amphitrite ornata (Leidy, 1855) | 1875 | Verrill, A. E.; Merriam, C. H. | Barnstable |
_002.jpeg) | Ampithoe rubricata (Montagu, 1808) | 1875 | U.S. Fish Commission | Barnstable |
 | Aplidium constellatum (Verrill, 1871) | 1875 | Verrill, A. E.; Merriam, C. H. | Barnstable |
 | Arenicola marina (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1875 | Verrill, A. E.; Merriam, C. H. | Barnstable |
All 4,617 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dennis, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2021: 4 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 2 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Dennis | $2,600,000 | A NWS survey team determined that although a weak, shallow waterspout was observed over the southern end of the Bass River, the damage observed in West Dennis was from straight-line microburst winds, estimated at 90+ mph. Media and amateur radio contributed to the following reports, as well. Numerous trees and wires were snapped or downed at Wrinkle Point. Trees and wires were down on Loring Avenue. Wires were down on Corporation Road. Trees, wires, and a utility pole were down on Pleasant Street. Wires were down on a car on Depot Street at Vester Drive. Power lines were down on Old Wharf Road. Trees down on Sunset Drive. There were many others. State Emergency Management reported that the cost to Dennis just for cleaning up the roads was a whopping $860,000. Total estimates were approximately triple that figure, when accounting for individual homeowner and business claims. |
| September 2021 | Tornado (EF0) | Dennis | $15,000 | A weak tornado briefly touched down at 130 AM in Dennis early in the morning and lasted for less than one minute. Damage was observed near the intersection of East Bay View Road and Wampanoag Trail. One home sustained damage when a window of a sun porch was blown in and others on an adjacent side were blown out. Outside patio furniture was lofted and landed across the street. Another house across the street had shingles blown off the roof in the opposite direction from other damage that was observed. Three large oak trees in the area also were blown down. One resident received the tornado warning prior to 1 AM and was able to seek shelter in the basement. The estimated maximum wind speed was 75 mph. |
| July 2016 | Lightning | Dennis | $15,000 | Lightning struck a house in Dennis, setting it on fire. |
| November 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Dennis | $10,000 | In Dennis, two utility poles were down and a third utility pole was cracked with wires down on Old Wharf Road near Beaten Road. The road was impassable. |
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | Dennis | $7,000 | At 1218 PM EST, a car was trapped in flood waters on Upper County Road near the Hart Farm. At 1220 AM EST, the parking lot at Ring Brothers Marketplace was flooded. At 1224 AM EST, Bob Crowell Road was flooded near the intersection with State Route 134 and the DPW was requested for assistance. At 1230 AM EST, the Sea Shell Motel on Chase Avenue had flooding on the first floor. At 321 AM EST, an amateur radio operator measured 6.95 inches of rain. |
| July 2005 | Hail | Dennis | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | Dennis | $200 | At 112 AM EST, State Route 6A in Yarmouth was reported flooded and impassable. At 600 AM EST, a Cocorahs observer in Yarmouth reported a storm total rainfall of 5.15 inches. |
| November 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Dennis | - | In Dennis, a mesonet site recorded a wind gust to 61 mph at 1216 PM EST. |
| October 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dennis | - | In Dennis at 713 PM EDT, a mesonet station recorded a wind gust to 64 mph. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Dennis | - | Video on Twitter showed nickel size hail falling in Dennis, MA. |
| September 2017 | Flood | West Dennis | - | At 150 PM EST, State Route 28 in West Dennis near the Marina Bay Club Condominiums was flooded and impassable. The Community Collaborative Rain Hail Snow observer in South Dennis reported storm total rainfall of 3.57 inches. |
| October 2017 | Flood | Dennis | - | At 130 AM EST, State Route 6A near Apache Drive was flooded. |
| October 2017 | Flood | Dennis | - | Apache Drive near State Route 6A in Yarmouth was flooded with a car trapped in the floodwaters. A CoCoRaHS observer at Yarmouth measured a Storm Total Rainfall of 5.41 inches. |
| August 2014 | Hail | Dennis | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | West Dennis | - | no account filed |
| March 1997 | Heavy Rain | Dennis | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | West Schoolhouse | under 500 feet | 1975 |
 | Sears, Jacob, Memorial Library | 2.7 miles | 2009 |
 | Dillingham House | 3.9 miles | 1976 |
 | Old Higgins Farm Windmill | 4.1 miles | 1975 |
 | West Dennis Graded School | 5.6 miles | 2000 |
 | Old Jail | 5.8 miles | 1971 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 74000360 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Barnstable County | All 145 listed properties in this county. |
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