Built in 1802 in the Greek Revival architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1981. 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.
From the record
“Briggs House, locally referred to as the Briggs-McDermott House, is located along Sandwich Road in Bourne, Massachusetts, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, and currently serves as historic house museum operated by the Bourne Society for Historic Preservation.”
Wikipedia article George I. Briggs House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1981 · category: Building · built in 1802, Greek Revival architecture.
National Register reference number.81000119- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The ground it stands on
5,230 words
The chapter on Bourne Town in Bourne High School Yearbook, published 1900 names Bourne. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
For the past ten years the scholars of the Bourne High School have been expecting a new building in which to finish their course. Every March we have attended the regular town meeting in anticipation of a new High SchiK)l building voted tons; but each year we have returned in disappointment and resumed our seats in the old, dark and unhealthy building. Until now it remains for some future class to return, not with disappointment but with joy.
Of the Graduating Class of the Bourne High School are most cordially invited to place their orders with us for their graduating outfit; assuring them the latest up to-date styles and such fabrics as will be adapted to the occasion.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 189 fires within 5 miles of Briggs, George I., House between
2001 and 2020, burning about 245 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 18 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
73
Debris and open burning
35
Smoking
30
Arson/incendiarism
18
Natural
10
Misuse of fire by a minor
10
Equipment and vehicle use
8
Recreation and ceremony
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 2,170 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Briggs, George I., House between 1816 and
1975: 1,177 Animalia, 561 Plantae, 342 Fungi, 72 Chromista, 8 Bacteria, 7 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. H. Moore, A. R. Hodgdon 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Bourne, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 4 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 lightning, 2 waterspout.
The reports record 1 injury. 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.
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.
From the nomination file
1,944 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Briggs-McDermott House is located on the south side of Sandwich Road which runs parallel to the Cape Cod Canal. Its 1/2 acre parcel includes one wood frame outbuilding as well as the granite foundations of two others in addition to the house itself. The house is a 2-1/2 story wood frame building which rests on a granite foundation and is enclosed by a pitched roof. Its facade, which faces gable end to the street, is enframed by paneled pilasters detailed with fret work in the mode popularized by Asher Benjamin. The entry is treated in similar manner with its frame appearing to come directly from Plate XXVIII of "The Practical House Carpenter." (1830) The facade is organized in a somewhat atypical manner with the entry being flanked by two windows on the east and only one on the west.
On the second story the number of openings is reduced to three and in the attic to two. Other elevations are asymmetrically arranged but all remaining sash is 2/2 double-hung. Window enframement consists of a narrow architrave and thinly molded lintel. It is believed that the house was constructed c. 1800 as a 1-1/2 story cottage and that its present configuration is the result of an extensive rebuilding c. 1830 which included raising of the roof and construction of an ell on the east side. Other alterations to the property include construction of a rear ell c. 1880 and demolition of two outbuildings during the twentieth century.
(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect Moses Keene II (ca. 1830) The Briggs-McDermott House possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship as well as historical associations with one of the town's leading families. Additionally, it is a good vernacular representation of the Greek Revival style and exhibits several important features such as its cornerpilasters and entry frame. It is believed that the house was óriginally constructed c. 1800 by Josephus Keene (1779-1813) as a 1-1/2 story Cape style cottage and remodeled c. 1830 by his son, Moses II (1804-1880) to its present Greek Revival form.
Moses was a carpenter and is known to have possessed Asher Benjamin's "Practical House Carpenter" whose plates appear to have been the source of the house's stylish decorative details. The book presently remains within the house. The most important occupant of the house was George I. Briggs (1843-1909) who was Mose's son-in-law. Briggs was instrumental in the incorporation of Bourne as a town after its separation from Cape Cod's first town of Sandwich in 1884. Briggs went on to become the town's first chairman of the first school committee; served as selectman from 1893 to 1905 and was chairman at his retirement from that office. He was also a fire ward and deer reeve and was chairman of the library trustees at the time of his death.
Briggs also served with the Navy, as did most Cape Cod men, during the Civil War. Before the construction of the Cape Cod Canal (1914) divided the town geographically in half, the area of this property was considered the center of town with school, post office and church nearby. There is an eleient of artistic and cultural significance to the Brigg's House as well.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 81000119, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
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.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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