Jethro Coffin House
| Jethro Coffin House | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
| Historic District Contributing Property | |||
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| location | Nantucket , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 41 ° 17 ′ 15 " N , 70 ° 6 ′ 25" W | ||
| surface | 0.75 acres (0.3 ha ) | ||
| Built | circa 1686 | ||
| NRHP number | [1] 68000019 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | November 24, 1968 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | November 24, 1968 | ||
| Declared as CP | November 13, 1966 | ||
The Jethro Coffin House (also Oldest House ) is a historic residential building on the island of Nantucket in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . It was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1968 and is now operated as a museum by the Nantucket Historical Association.
architecture
The house was built as a so-called saltbox and has one and a half floors built around a central chimney. The roof is covered with wooden shingles, which also serve as external wall cladding. On the chimney, protruding bricks form an unusual shape, the exact meaning of which is still unclear today. Jethro Coffin was a blacksmith by trade, so it could be a horseshoe ; but this would not have been placed with the opening facing down, as this brings misfortune to superstition. It could therefore also be a protective talisman against witches entering the fireplace. It is also conceivable that it is a wishbone or just a Jacobean chimney arch in a provincial design.
history
The building stands on a hill northwest of the city center known as Sunset Hill. The house was most likely built as a wedding present for Jethro and Mary Coffin (née Gardner) around 1686. The building materials required came from Exeter , New Hampshire , where Jethro's father owned woods and a sawmill. In 1708 the Coffins sold the house to the Paddock family, who owned it until 1840. The records are sketchy from here until it was bought in 1881 by Tristram Coffin from Poughkeepsie , New York , who was a direct descendant of Jethro Coffin. He had repairs carried out and the roof replaced. The Nantucket Historical Association acquired the house in 1923 and carried out a full reconstruction in 1927.
Historical meaning
The house is one of the best-preserved 17th-century Saltbox houses in New England and the only one of its kind on Nantucket. Especially for Nantucket it is atypical that it was never moved and still stands in its original building site today. Although it underwent considerable structural changes in 1927 due to the extensive reconstruction work and thus hardly corresponds to its original today - neither in terms of construction material nor in terms of design - it is now used as a textbook example of the appearance of a Saltbox.
See also
- List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in Nantucket County
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
literature
- Heintzelman, P .; Snell, C .: National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination: Jethro Coffin House. ( PDF ) National Park Service , January 23, 1975, accessed September 19, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
- ↑ cf. Heintzelman / Snell, p. 2.
- ↑ cf. Heintzelman / Snell, p. 5.
- ↑ a b cf. Heintzelman / Snell, p. 3.
