170 Pleasant St MACRISMassachusetts Cultural Resource Information System
armed Record Cover Page
Inventory No:
YAR.414
Historic Name:
Goodnow, Freeman Crowell House
Common Name:
"'•.
Address:
170 Pleasant St_,
City/Town:
Yarmouth
� a
VillageiNeighborhood.
South Yarmouth Village; Bass River
Local No:
246
Year Constructed:
c 1780
Architect(s):
Architectural Style(s):
Colonial
Use(s):
Secondary Dwelling House; Single Family Dwelling House
Significance:
Architecture; Recreation
Area(s):
Designation(s):
Building Materials(s):
Wall: Wood; Wood Shingle
Foundation: Brick
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FORM B - B-UII.Dl. G
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMIMISSION
Office of the Secretary, State House, Boston
In Area no. Form no.
'n South Xarrmouth bass River} mm
°ess Off of Pleasant Street
nt use
Sumer residence
.Z
ent.owner Casal and Patricia Acheson
ript ion:
a. 1760
J U r (2 sight
Georgian
Clutect
in relation to nearest cross streets and
other buildings_ :ndi.cate north. Exterior will fabric wood shingles
Sail Village Way
Outbuildings (describe)
Cape type with brick foundation
Other features_and_6/6 VindoXe.__Da4rwa7 in
gable end has Federal entablature and side
' 1i.ghts. There__Rre clan pi,.lasters_san__thiS side,
Bak -4.l i 'd t ds river with
P
1
(
G e ens on WI ane sa away
phiTmey, parch_ and- darmer_f ping ri-rEr-;�-porch]
3
e
at
Altered X Pate
a
axd
s
Ivlo�ed g Date
g.
- - —
n
5. Lot size:
yaG�i
club
One acre or less g Over one acre__-
S
t
Approximate frontage 35s
r
e
... .....
Froth.ingham way
�
B
a
Approximate distance of building from street
e
4, w.. _
t
s
1 000 T4s
.01
H
6. Recorded by Doxy Elrick
i
v
Organization Yarmouth Ristorical Survey
e
r
Date 26 September l
* covers one gable side also. Original was
(oyer)
probably* 3/a Cape. Situated on the river
/ with pri.vat -lock.
4
-sz
7. Original owner (if known)
original use Undoubtedly an
Subsequent uses (if any) and dates
homestead
8. Themes (check as many as applicable)
Aboriginal
Conservation
Recreation
Agricultural
Education
Religion
Architectural
X__... Exploration/
science/
The Arts
settlement
invention
Commerce --_y_
Industry
Socials
Communication
Military
humanitarian
Community development
X.,._ Political
X Transportation
9. Historical significance (include explanation of themes checked above)
F14
One family or another would claim to be the first summer visitors to become attached to
Bass River and to spend their summers on its shores. As early as 1840 there are refer-
ences to people leaving the city for the spiritual repose and mild sunnier weather which
an early sojourn to the Cape afforded. Early on in South Yarmouth the differences between
the later explorer -settler and the early seasonal vacationer were fine ones and were
separated only by the fact that at the end of the summer the vacationers left and the
settlers stayed to prepare for their first hard winter.
One of the eaxlier families to have a claim on historic summer sovreignty was the Rughs
family; Emily, Martha and their mother. In 1862 they came to live, summers, at Mrs.
Elizabeth White's boarding house on Main Street, near the Bass River Farms. Next door,
on either side sof the Widow White's lived the boys, Freeman C. Goodnow and John F.
Crocker. The sisters met the boys and as things would happen ended, up married to them;
Martha to John and Emily to Freeman.
Freeman Crowell Goodnow,, (or at the time of his birth in 1849, Goodenoe), eventually
moved with his wife to Cambridge and left his father's house on Main Street. In Cambridge
he lived winter's involved in pursuits away from B f-, River, but always he had an eye
towards the vi.11.age and the desire to return. Oncee South Yarmouth library a-,qui.red
a new home above the Wing Brothers store on Bridge Street Goodnow donated a lantern,
stating that it be, "...hung above the entrance to the rooms and to serve not only the
purpose of lighting the way up and down the stairs, but as a Beacon Light that all who
see may know the reading room is open."
although Freeman had grown up in the village and loved it dearly he was only able to spend
summers there. It is with, these sum ers that the house surveyed here, is picked up in the
tU. Bibliography and/or references (such as local histories, deeds, assessor's records,
early maps, etc.)
A. Yarmouth Vital Records, Warwick, Rhode Island, 1975
B. 1884 and 1907.Atlasee of Barnstable County
C. Yesterd4yl s Tide, Florence W. Baker, 1941
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET
i+ AS SAGr1USMS H I STORI CAL CCMU SS I ON,
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Coi�a
ou � Yariaouth
(Bass River)
Form No:
246
Property Name
indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
story. Where it comes from is unsure, but a few guesses can be made about this
Georgian which put forth an interesting theory.
In 1904 Freeman bought a piece of lamed from the widow, Naomi L. Davis, at this site
on the river's edge. At the same time many summer people were doing the same thing.
One would buy a piece of land along the river and build, or more commonly move a
structure there to house them while they visited. This was the case for this house
which Goodnow moved sometime after he purchased the property-.
Where it came from, again, is debatable, but considering that his father's, (Peter),
house was directly above this spot when it sat on Ymin. Street implies that an easy
stove across the fields in a straight line would have given Freeman the house that he
grew up in, on tho site where he wished to spend his summers. Add to this the fact
that the Nair. Street house was missing from the 1907 map, but present in 1880 lends
that much more crederze to the idea that Freeman moved this house of Peter's from
its original site on Main Street.
This original site, (if we accept the above theory), is in an area of development
which has many varying style periods to contend with. If Peter Goodnoe was, in fact,
the builder of this house then it is probably about circa 180, Goodnoe was born in
1807. The speculation on this point mast be accepted with an even more scrutinizing
eye and hence to continue with, or to make additional definitive statements about
its history is improper. Never -the -less the house appears older than 1840.
The present owners of this house, Casal and Patricia Acheson, who are son and
daughter-in-law of former secretary of State, Dean Acheson, have not been contacted,
but perhaps they would be interested in verifying the above theories with the
additional time consuming research which this house warrants.
Additional info- la.ti on, after ..he: fact, now indicates that the house
?mei oncring to Peter Goodnoe was moved -f-=m its site on Main Street to
one on Hiahland yvenue, (see form 408); consequently it can not be
the one survevee here.
SSM- to Inventory form at bot n