HomeMy WebLinkAboutOdence Letter of OppositionMs Brown and the Members of the Barnstable Historical Commission.
I am a life long Cotuit summer resident and now more more or less full tfme living in a late 1700s
captain’s house. As a lifetfme member of the Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit, I have led the effort
to digitfze the HSSC’s historical homes records as well as its oral history program. I am opposed to any
plans to demolish parts of or move the Ebenezer Crocker, Jr House.
The HSSC’s Historical Homes project has been built on the the shoulders of many but none more than
those of Harriet Ropes Cabot and James Gould. My friend Mrs Cabot memorialized the definitfve history
of Crocker House in her 1957 paper, “The Crocker-Hooper-Lowell-Ropes House.” She had a special
interest, having grown up there herself. She describes Crocker’s picking the spot for his then new home
as follows, “There were other small houses there already, but this house it the only one of its type and
pretensions to be built at the shore untfl the era of the larger summer ‘cottage.’” A fascinatfng aspect of
that history is the way Congressman Samuel Hooper, in 1849, became “the first summer resident” and
the house presided over Hooper’s Landing, a center of actfvity during Cotuit’s maritfme heyday. Long
before 60 years ago, when I first admired the slightly quirky edifice from my Cotuit Skiff, the house has
stood had stood as a landmark and a reminder of “Cotuit Port” and the one-tfme importance of that
corner of the harbor. Its history is intfmately tfed to its locatfon on the bluff above Cotuit harbor.
Jim Gould loved and researched countless historical homes, work he handed off to me, but he had a
special affinity for the house in questfon and the entfre Ropes Farm complex On his Cotuit history
walking tours, Jim would dwell long at 49 Putnam expounding on the storied history of the home and its
environs. Jim was certainly dismayed by the disrepair into which the owners let the historic barn slide
that eventually lead to it’s demolitfon by neglect.
If there was one home that Mrs Cabot and Dr Gould would have hoped their legacies would protect, it
would be the Ebenezer Crocker House. Certainly it sits in the top handful of Cotuit’s most historic
propertfes. If listfng the Natfonal Registry and the laws to preserve the village, town’s and Cape’s rich
history can't protect a property of such historical significance, what’s the point? Demolishing part of it
and moving it to an obscure corner of and adjacent property or across town is only a small olive branch
to history and the community.
A property like this brings with it responsibility for historical stewardship. Buying a property like this,
listed in the Natfonal Registry, one should certainly understand the strong community interest (in all
sense’s of the word) in preserving an important gem of Cotuit’s long history.
Mrs Cabot ended her paper in what she thought, at the tfme, was whimsey, “Even when the witch,
Hannah Screecham, knocks at the door when it storms, she is friendly and that house will stand fast.” We
can only hope that the house will weather the loud knock of this storm and stand fast for years to come.
Respectiully,
L. Philip Odence
Child’s Homestead
15 Old Shore Road, Cotuit
P.S.
Rigging my Cotuit Skiff for the race this morning and enjoying my view of the Ebenezer Crocker, Jr
House, it occurred to me that a picture from the water might be worth 1000 words to give the
commissioners a sense of this landmark's prominence and integral relatfonship to the harbor.
Notwithstanding the new trees now obscuring the view from the road, you can see it’s stfll quite visible
to the community.
As an aside, the owner’s other home is the modern one to the right.
Regards,
Phil