Collins Cottages Historic District
| Collins Cottages Historic District | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| Historic District | |||
 The access road to the district |
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| location | Eastham , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 41 ° 47 '58 " N , 69 ° 58' 55" W | ||
| surface | 2.7 acres (1.1 ha ) | ||
| Built | 1928-29 / 1946 | ||
| architect | Lewis H. & Bernard C. Collins | ||
| Architectural style | Arts and Crafts | ||
| NRHP number | [1] 99000528 | ||
| The NRHP added | May 20, 1999 | ||
The Collins Cottages Historic District is in the National Register of Historic Places registered Historic District in Eastham in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . It comprises a total of nine buildings that contribute to its historical significance (so-called contributing properties ) as well as four other objects.
General
The district is located in the southeastern part of Eastham on the east side of US Highway 6 , which follows the Old King's Highway, which was built in colonial times. Eastham is the oldest city on Lower Cape Cod , from which, among other things, the cities of Orleans and Wellfleet, which are adjacent to the north and south, emerged . Eastham is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Cape Cod Bay to the west.
The Collins Cottages Historic District occupies a wedge-shaped, 2.7 acres (1.1 hectare ) area from the highway down to the ocean. The NRHP entry comprises a total of 13 properties, nine of which - seven residential buildings, a sea wall and a building for fish processing - were rated as contributing to historical relevance. The other objects, which are not relevant due to their too young age, consist of a garage, two wooden quays and a boat ramp.
Description of the district
Contributing Properties
Residential houses
Name factor in the district are seven (of the Collins family houses English cottages ) from the 20th century. Six of them were built in 1928 and 1929, the seventh followed in 1946. While the first six are staggered so that each has a clear view of the ocean, the last building had to be set back from the shore and today no longer has a clear view of it Sea as this is blocked by the garage and house number 6.
The houses, built in the same style as the American Arts and Crafts Movement, are made of wood and are one story high, have a flat roof pitch and are clad with wooden shingles. Most of the materials used to build the houses were taken from a chicken farm that previously stood on the property and from the former Naval Air Station Chatham .
Houses 2 to 6 have sweeping verandas on the ocean side, supported on stilts to compensate for the slope . Despite their fundamental similarity, the cottages differ primarily in terms of the roof shape, interior design and room layout, as well as the different number and position of building wings. For example, the two smallest houses number 6 and 7 have only two bedrooms, while the others have three rooms of this type.
The houses were designed to meet the needs of holidaymakers who only live there for a short time. Most of the entrance areas facing the parking lot of the house lead directly into the kitchen so that shopping does not have to be carried far. The screened verandas offer a good view of the sea and at the same time enlarge the living area of the houses, which all have a large, stone fireplace.
Other objects
The sea wall built in 1936 from field stones delimits the district from the beach. At 18 in (457.2 mm ) high and 12 in (304.8 mm) wide, it doubles as a retaining wall to prevent soil erosion and protect against the waves of the ocean.
The building, erected in 1940 in the north-eastern corner of the district, stands directly on the bank and is still used today to gut the shellfish caught off the coast and to prepare them for sale. The appearance of the small, one-story house harmonizes with the residential buildings in the district.
Noncontributing Properties
The garage, built in 1958, is located between houses number 6 and 7, which is made of wood like the houses and is clad with wooden shingles. It offers space for four vehicles and visually blends in with the surroundings, but due to its young age does not contribute to the relevance of the district. The two wooden quays are located in the northern third of the district in a narrow littoral zone and mainly serve to connect the fishing boats to the processing building. The boat ramp was poured from concrete and is located in the southwest area of the district.
Historical meaning
The homes in the district were built by Lewis Henry Collins and his son Bernard C. Collins, who bought the property from John Stubbs, who previously ran a chicken farm there on a part-time basis. Due to their strategically favorable location directly on US Highway 6, the buildings have both excellent transport links and an unobstructed view of the Town Cove bay .
Bernard Collins lived with his family in Boston for twenty years, where he ran the JA Stubbs Shellfish Co. company. His father bought shellfish all over Cape Cod and sent them to his son, whose company supplied many restaurants. Some of the shellfish also came from Town Cove , where the family had appropriate fishing licenses.
In 1938 Bernard returned to Eastham with his family and took over the management of the cottages, which already had a large number of regular customers, as well as the shellfish fishery. They rebuilt house no. 1 considerably and enlarged it to be able to live there all year round. Until 1940 the animals were processed in the cellar of this house before a separate building was erected. The renovation, which, despite its size, has retained the character of the house, is seen as part of the development of the area and thus as harmless to its historical relevance. Bernard Collins was politically active and was among other things a founding member of the Eastham Historical Society.
The Collins Cottages represent the first examples of a trend that gave rise to what Cape Cod is today . Colonies of this kind, along with motels, replaced the large hotels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Typically, these settlements consist of smaller residential houses or huts designed exclusively for temporary use, which are managed from a single building in which the manager or the owner of the facility partly lives himself. Since they were only designed as a place to stay, they make a rather spartan impression compared to today's standards.
After the success of the Collins Cottages, many other settlements of this type were built in Eastham, particularly near the highways, near lakes and directly on the coast. The houses in today's historic district are among the few well-preserved buildings from this period. In some cases three generations of a family came to visit each summer and a tenant vacationed at the colony for 50 consecutive years.
See also
literature
- Jenkins, Candace; Friedberg, Betsy: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. ( PDF ) National Park Service , April 1999, accessed on February 22, 2016 (English, accessible via the "NR" button).
Individual evidence
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved March 13, 2009.
- ↑ a b cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 5.
- ↑ a b c d cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 6 f.
- ↑ cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 6.
- ↑ a b cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 9.
- ↑ cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 11.
- ↑ a b cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 12.
- ↑ a b cf. Jenkins / Friedberg, p. 13.