Tobey Homestead

The Tobey Homestead, Wareham, was built ca. 1825 and remodelled ca. 1870. It sits on a low rise in the center of Wareham, a coastal town on Buzzards Bay. The property faces east overlooking the Wareham Narrows Bridge (also known as Nicholson Bridge). To the rear of the property is the Tobey Hospital complex, separated from the house by an asphalted parking area; to the south are the driveway and access space for the Tobey Hospital Emergency Room. The eastern and northern sides of the property retain a sloping lawn, clipped hedges, and a low granite retaining wall. The property's southern neighbor is the Alden Besse House. (ca. 1835)The nominated property is set back approximately 30 feet from the intersection of Main Street and the Narrows Bridge (Sandwich Road, or Route 6).

While the house is located at the front of a lot of some 30 acres, the lot includes Tobey Hospital. Only the area immediately around the house, encompasing half an acre, is included within the nomination. The hospital complex includes associated storage buildings, a small administrative building, and a trailer within the above-mentioned Emergency Room access area. The Hospital has announced plans to expand the Emergency Wing out toward the Tobey Homestead, but not within the area proposed for listing on the National Register. A 1985 fire destroyed a number of the small outbuildings previously associated with the house, and burned part of the rear ell. The main body of the house and its back wing suffered only some minor fire and smoke damage.

In appearance, the house is generally Second Empire in style and detail, the result of a ca. 1870 remodelling of a preexisting Federal-period structure.

/Architect Unknown Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Tobey Homestead, Wareham, retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and association. Built ca. 1825 as a late-period Federal-style residence, the house was altered ca. 1870 with the application of well-executed Second Empire features. It retains its Federal-period plan and details, and thus today the building is architecturally significant as an amalgamation of these two distinct 19th century styles. It is historically significant for its associations with a locally prominent industrial family, the Tobeys, whose iron foundry and philanthropic efforts contributed greatly to Wareham's 19th century development.

The Tobey Homestead thus fulfils Criteria B and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level. Three rivers, the Weweantic, the Wankinco, and the Agawam, flow through War eham. The nominated property is located on a prominent location overlooking the Wareham Narrows near the mouth of the Agawam River. built in Wareham's center ca. 1825 by Jared Pratt, a native of nearby Middleborough, who with his brother Isaac had founded the Wareham Iron Works in Iron-related industries dominated Wareham's economic development for much of the 19th century, made possible by the town's fortuitous combination of excellent waterpower, ready access to the 18th century ironworking skills of interior Plymouth County artisans, and a rapidly developing coastal trade in iron ore and products.

While the iron industry throughout the colonial period had used locally obtained bog and pond ore from interior Plymouth County, by the late 18th century rock ore from New Jersey mines became preferable. By 1804, ore was transported from Egg Harbor, N.J., to Wareham by sloop, and processed there in local blast and air furnaces.