Welcome to the Cooper-Frost-Austen House, the oldest home in Cambridge. My name is __ and I’ll be showing you around. We’ll be looking at some of the 17th architectural features of this building, talk about how it has evolved and adapted over time, and learn a bit about the Coopers and Frosts and Austens, a single family that lived and cared for this structure for over 200 years.
We’ll start by describing the landscape this home was built in, then take a walk around to look at the exterior, and then proceed inside. Unlike other properties of Historic New England, this building has no historic furnishings, but it does have a current tennant. Having a tenant is one way we can preserve this historic structure. We know something about the original furnishings from probate records, but you’ll need to ignore the contemporary furniture you’ll see inside!
Along the way I’ll try to answer any questions, and if I can’t, let’s exchange contact info and I’ll connect you with Historic New England Staff who know more than I do.
Let’s talk about the setting: You probably came in from Massachusetts Avenue. Since the 1630s there has been a path there: Originally it was the Highway to Menotomy. On a map, the route seems to be indirect, but in this neighborhood you can see that it is actually skirting around the base of Avon Hill, to provide a level route for carts. Farther west the route across Alewife Brook was determined by marshes that surrounded Fresh Pond.
Linnean Street at the base of Avon Hill was originally the boundary between The Common (to the south) and the New West Field of 1638 (to the north). This was the first area in Cambridge where people could live on their farms: Before that, they were required to live in town, and under the eyes of their neighbors. The name “Linnean” commemorates Carl Linneaus, who created the binomial naming system in biology: The Harvard Botanical Garden was at the west end of this street.
This siting is part of why it has survived: This area was remote. Many buildings of comparable age in Harvard Square would have been razed in the 18th century, and this is just far enough from Porter Square that the neighborhood escapes development for most of the 19th century as well.
As a working farm, there would certainly have been outbuildings, but most of the land has been built over, and no archeological survey has been done here in the yard, so we can only talk about the structure that has survived, so let’s walk around.
[walk to front]
We can think of the siting of this house as an exercise in energy conservation. The route of Massachusetts Avenue was set to save energy in transport. The house itself faces south with two floors of windows to let in light, and originally gable windows in the roof, while on the north the roof almost reaches the ground. Fireplaces are in the center of the building to radiate heat to the surrounding rooms. It was made primarily from local materials: Trees were felled on the site, and the farm encompassed a clay pit at what is now Stone Court, a couple blocks north on Mass Ave.
We need to acknowledge that Stone Court was also the site of executions for the county up until 1817, when the courthouse in East Cambridge was constructed. The wealth that supported this house has its roots in violence. The permanence of this house and ease with which we can trace the generations of Coopers, Frosts, and Austens can obscure the lives and stories of those who left a lighter mark on the historical record.
In 1639 the founders of Cambridge obtained a deed from the “Queen of the Massachusett” – We don’t know her name. She was the widow of Sachem Nanepashemet, but she was a respected leader in her own right: In the native culture, women were the primary farmers, and retained their own property in marriage, in contrast to the English. She lived for several more years along the Mystic Lakes, whose name in their language described their tidal nature. This language would have been understood across Eastern Massachusetts, and down into the cape and islands, with some dialectical differences. Although it ceased to be spoken in the 19th century, dozens of books were printed in the language from 1650s to the 1720s, just down the road at the first Harvard University Press. They were all part of the missionary effort. John Elliot gave himself credit as translator, but he was not fluent in the language, and relied on James Printer, a Nipmuc man to set the type and get the details right. Connecting these early texts and the memories of the last speakers in the 19th century, Jesse Little Doe Baird and the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project are bringing the language back: Children in Mashpee are learning the language today, and there is a 10,000 word dictionary.
This house and farm was also a place where enslaved Black men and women lived and worked. We need to do more work to recover this history, but we do know that Neptune Frost was enslaved here, and served with the Cambridge Militia at the time of the Revolution. We also know that at Stone Court Mark and Phillis were executed 1755 after being accused of poisoning their enslaver. Just as the prominence of this house at the base of the hill would have signaled the prosperity of one family, the gallows and Mark’s corpse, tarred and hung by the side of the road, would have been a sign of the violent order that supported that family.
So, let’s consider the historical setting when this home is constructed:
The people of Cambridge feel secure here, but with stronger connections to England, tastes are changing, and we will see that in the development of this structure. Let’s start on the east side.
Materials:
Adaptation:
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