The Coffin House is a historic

Colonial America The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the late 15th century until the unifying of the Thirteen British Colonies and creation of the United States in 1776, during the Re ...

n house, currently estimated to have been constructed circa 1678. It is located at 14 High Road,

Newbury, Massachusetts Newbury is a town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, ...

, and operated as a non-profit museum by

Historic New England Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England a ...

. The house is open on the first and third Saturday of the month from June through October. The house began in 1678 as a simple structure of two or possibly three rooms on land owned by Tristram Coffin, Jr, son of Tristram Coffin, who had left the area for Nantucket by this time. About 1713 the house was more than doubled in size, with new partitions added. In 1785, two Coffin brothers legally divided the structure into two separate dwellings, each with its own kitchen and living spaces. The property remained within the Coffin family until acquired by Historic New England in 1929. Although the house was traditionally dated to 1654 (by Joshua Coffin, author of the 1845 history of Newbury), recent scientific studies have provided more accurate estimates. In 2002, the Oxford Tree-ring Laboratory analyzed wooden beams from the structure and ascertained that donor trees were felled in winter 1676–1677 and 1677–1678 for the original structure, and winter 1712–1713 for the addition. This revised dating means that the Coffin House may no longer be the earliest example of the principal

rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as Beam (structure), steel beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof Roof shingle, shingles, ...

/common

purlin A purlin (or historically purline, purloyne, purling, perling) is a longitudinal, horizontal, structural member in a roof. In traditional timber framing there are three basic types of purlin: purlin plate, principal purlin, and common purlin. P ...

roof, although even so it is certainly one of the oldest extant examples. In 1785, two of the brothers of the Coffin family legally divided the house into two separate dwelling areas. The last Coffin-surnamed resident of the home was Lucy Coffin. Coffin House is owned by

Notes

External links

* * Library of Congress. Historic American Buildings Survey
Tristram Coffin House
14 High Road, Newbury Old Town, MA {{Historic New England Houses completed in 1678 Historic house museums in Massachusetts Museums in Essex County, Massachusetts Houses in Newbury, Massachusetts Historic New England 1678 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony