The Tristam Coffin House, 14 High Rd., Newbury MA (1678)

The following text is from the MACRIS site:

The Tristram Coffin House (Massachusetts Historic Landmark; HABS: MASS 472) was continuously occupied by the Coffin family from 1654 when it was built by one of Newbury’s first settlers, Tristram Coffin, until its acquisition by SPNEA in 1929.

Dendrochronology conducted by the Oxford Tree-ring Labratory found that the earliest part of the Coffin House was built in 1678 on land owned by Tristram Coffin, Jr., though how he acquired the land is not recorded. The property remained in Coffin family ownership until it came to SPNEA in 1929 and was for a time divided in ownership among several members of the Coffin family. The traditional date of c. 1654 was assigned by Joshua Coffin, author of the 1845 history of Newbury, who resided in the house (Coffin 1845, 391).

The earliest portion of the Tristram Coffin House represents one of the outstanding examples of First Period architecture in New England and is the most important seventeenth century house in the District. It is set in deeply from High Road on a lot with a creek just beyond its western edge. Architectural analysis proceeds on the basis of dendrochronology, documentation and style. The original portion is the earliest example in the area in which the architectural treatments of both interior and exterior have been preserved. The portion facing south was enlarged with a First Period addition.

A more extensive enlargement occurred after 1750, expanding the house to its present size while establishing a new orientation facing east. By 1785 all major elements of the house as it now stands were named in a division of the property. The east facade facing the High Road continues the seventeenth century use of unpainted clapboarding, vertical chimneys and vernacular character of the original portion; its organization is now regularized and classicized so that its entrance and fenestration are symmetrically disposed into five bays, two and one-half stories in height. The placement of windows on the south facade reflects the additive nature of the house.