Avant House (Massachusetts)
| Avant House | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 Information sign for the Wampanoag Indian Museum |
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| location | Mashpee , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 41 ° 38 '57 " N , 70 ° 29' 12" W | ||
| surface | 0.58 acres (0.2 ha ) | ||
| Built | circa 1830 | ||
| NRHP number | [1] 98001382 | ||
| The NRHP added | December 3, 1998 | ||
The Avant House (also Wampanoag Indian Museum or Timothy Pocknet Homestead ) is a former home and now a museum in Mashpee in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . It was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 3, 1998 as a monument .
architecture
Despite some structural changes, the Avant House still essentially has its original shape as a so-called "Half Cape" house. It is one and a half stories high, measures 28 ft (8.5 m ) by 22 ft (6.7 m) in plan and is three yokes wide and two yokes deep. At the front is the entrance in the right part of the building, two windows are installed to the left. The back of the house is a mirror image of the front. On the east side of the main building, a one-story extension with a floor space of 16 ft (4.9 m) by 14 ft (4.3 m) was built, with the windowless rear part forming a continuous wall with the main building, but the front sides of both parts of the building offset are arranged. The outer walls - like the gable roof - are clad with weathered wooden shingles made of cedar wood.
Inside, the main building has a small entrance hall on the right and a formal drawing room on the northeast part of the ground floor. There is a fireplace with details in the style of the Greek Revival , the cladding of which is still preserved in the original. Behind the salon a staircase leads to the first floor. There is only one room in the annex, which is directly connected to the entrance hall. The building was renovated in the early 1970s and prepared for use as the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum . In every room of the house there are exhibits and exhibits from the history of the Wampanoag Indians living in the region , including tools, hunting and fishing equipment, as well as weapons and everyday objects.
history
The house, built around 1830, is one of the oldest surviving residential buildings in Mashpee. In 1762 the then President of Yale University Ezra Stiles visited the place and noted that 75 families lived there in 60 wigwams and 6 houses. The small number of permanent buildings was due to the fact that the Indians living in Mashpee under the rule of Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were not allowed to commission people to build houses until 1725. Only with the establishment of limited self-administration in 1834 did the number of permanent dwellings increase significantly; Among other things, a town hall, a school building and the Hotel Attaquin were built at this time.
The first owner of the Avant House was Nantucket-born John Phinney, who was presumed to have been awarded the approximately 0.5 acres of land because he had built the house on it - under a law passed in 1819 it was common practice to transfer land to someone who upgraded it in some way (e.g. by building a house or through other management). In the mid-19th century, Phinney sold his property to EB Howland, who bequeathed it to his son Ellis. The Howlands did not live in the house themselves, but rented it out. In 1863 the Avant House was sold to the Wampanoag Indian Timothy Pocknet.
Pocknet purchased 60 acres of land in the western part of Mashpee and owned additional lots along the road to his home. His second wife Leah also owned several properties with a total size of over 20 acres (8.1 hectares), which she had brought in or inherited from their first marriage. Professionally, Timothy Pocknet, as pound keeper, was essentially responsible for ensuring that the grazing animals did not run around uncontrolled. He was also one of the signatories of a letter to the governor in 1833 calling for self-government in the region around Mashpee. This led to the desired success in 1834 with the establishment of the Mashpee District.
Pocknet died in 1888, and after his wife died in 1890, the Avant House was sold to Lysander B. Godfrey under the name Timothy Pocknet Homestead. It was bought by William Makepeace in 1918 for $ 550 (around $ 9,300 today). On February 19, 1919, it passed to Fletcher Clark, who already sold it on March 12 of the same year for one dollar "and other valuable consideration" to George E. Avant, after whom it is still named today.
George Avant practiced the profession of meat inspector and also owned large estates. After his death, the house was passed on to his wife Mabel, who worked as a town clerk and dealt with the tribal history of the Wampanoag. Therefore, she was a major authority on tribal affairs and a strong political advocate for the tribe. She also worked as a "medicine woman" for the Indians. To this day Mabel Avant is known for her tales of Indian legends and the superstitions of the tribe.
In 1966 Reginald Avant sold what was still known as "Timothy Pocknet Homestead" to Carl A. Avant. The progressive development of the region in the 1960s raised fears that the history of the Wampanoag might be lost from sight and led to the desire for a corresponding museum. The city therefore bought the Avant House in 1970 for $ 4,400 (around $ 28,900 today) and renovated it extensively. The museum opened in the same year. In 1998 ownership of the house was transferred to the Wampanoag tribal council.
See also
literature
- Korjeff, Sarah; Friedberg, Betsy: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. ( PDF ) National Park Service , October 1998, accessed on November 5, 2015 (English, accessible via the "NR" button).