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HomeMy WebLinkAbout123 Old Main possible reno 201888 Yarmouth: old Homes and Gathering Places 122 Old Main Street c. 1848 This house belonged to another of Yarmouth's sea captains, John E. Baker. His parents, Freeman and Rebecca, produced a number of children who lived near here; Lydia, Reuben, Freeman, Rebecca, Hannah, Pheobe and Calvin. John Eldridge Baker was born in 1811 and married Marie Eldridge in 1839. It is believed that he built this house about this time. He was a seaman who later captained the schooner Grace Darling. Two of his children lived to healthy adulthood, but Willis E. died of cholera in 1848 at the age of six months and three days. His gravestone in the Baptist Cemetery reads, "Why should we weep for thee since thou has gone, unsullied, back to Heaven? Purity, no stain on thy young spirits. No sin to be forgiven" Another son, John A., lived fifty years, but was an invalid. After John E. Baker's death in 1893, his widow Maria and children lived in the house. The house is basically Greek Revival but lacks any columns, even on the corners. There is a flat triangular pediment above the door and side lights and a trellis all around the door. There are three chimneys, a small entryway on the right side, and an extension with one dormer on the right and two on the left. The foundation is brick, and the shingles were put up in 1979. The gable faces the street, and there is an old shed with shingles that has many additions on it and is used as a garage. 123 Old Main Street c. 1790-c. 1865 Early CapelFrench Second Empire To look at it from the street one might not guess the true history of this house. Is it French Second Empire? Well, yes, in part, but move a bit to the right and study that part of the house that faces west. Aha! A true three-quarter Cape presents itself, complete with off -center massive chimney! This part of the house was built in the late 18th Century and many of the original doors, latches and other architectural details remain inside. The history of this property is not clear, other than that in 1840 Freeman Baker sold Captain Howes' piece of it to Captain Barnabas Eldridge. In the same deed reference was also made to the house, which was bequeathed to Rebecca Eldridge, wife of Barnabas. Why she was given this house and not the land perhaps says something about the status of women at that time! Sometime in the mid -nineteenth century the original Cape was probably added onto in an attempt to "modernize" it, not an uncommon thing for Victorians to do. In any event, the much older Cape survives intact and is worthy of restoration. 129 Old Main Street c. 1850 Greek Revival This house was built around 1850 by Captain Eldridge Crowell, who was born in 1822, the son of Timothy, Jr., and Polly Crowell. Timothy Crowell was from West Yarmouth and like his son and grandson to be, as it was with his father and grandfather, he was a mariner. When he died, his widow, Polly, moved to South Yarmouth to be with her son Eldridge and her daughters, Mary Jenkins, Sophia Taylor and Harriet Baker, all of whom had married and settled down in three suc- cessive houses on Pleasant Street. Eldridge did not often visit with hi� mother for he made many foreign voyages. From the time he was nine years old, he went to sea. During that period until he left South Yarmouth for Boston in 1884, where he became Port Warden, Eldridge commanded such vessels as the H.M. Crowell, which was one of the first three -masted schooners on the coast. Sometime in 1940, this house, which originally fronted on Old Main Street, was turned sideways on a new foundation so that the front door now faces southwest. At that time the old kitchen and shed to the rear were removed, and a number of alterations took place within. Two small parlors became one, and the four windows across the front of these rooms became three. The front hall was extended, and a new fireplace built in the enlarged parlor. The barn out back, however, remains an original treasure, complete with windowed cupola, an old sliding barn door and attached outhouse to the rear. 146 Old Main Street c. 1860 This building has been bought and sold continually with the house located next door. In the late 1800's, blind Reuben Baker sold groceries here. In the 1930's it was a restaurant, called Robinsods- Village Kitchen. Numerous people have owned it over the years and operated as a store, restaurant, and currently, as a carpentry shop.