Page #2

Return to
Page # 1

House listings 

RETURN TO FRONT PAGE

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

This building is a good example of the early Cape Cod houses. There is a massive central chimney, broadly pitched roof and windows on the principal elevation which are located close to the plate. The simple lines of this building, lacking in architectural ornamentation, are characteristic of eighteenth century homes in Rockland. The portico over the main entrance is an early twentieth-century addition.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE 

This house was probably built around 1760 by Benjamin Townsend, who lived here until his death by accident in 1798. Townsend's wife and children stayed on for eighteen years before moving to Maine. At that time, in 1816, Zadock Nash purchased the house, living here until his death in 1864. Among later owners, the Thompson family were prominent. Samuel V. Thompson was a carpenter. He apparently shared this house with Luke and Gilbert Thompson, both shoemakers, during the later half of the nineteenth century. In 1909 a retired shoemaker named George Lane lived here.

Campbell, Martha, Research Reporter Na. 265, 1/13/72. Rockland Directories 1884, 1909                             Abington Directory, 1807                                              Maps of Abington, 1830,1884                                        Map of Plymouth County, 1857                                   Atlases of Plymouth, 1874, 1903