The Ross Tavern is a historic building in
Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A res ...
. Now a private residence, the building was moved to its present site from central Ipswich (adjacent to the
Choate Bridge) in 1940, and carefully restored to a
First Period
First Period is an American architecture style originating between approximately 1626 and 1725, used primarily by British colonists during the settlement of the British colonies of North America, particularly in Massachusetts and Virginia. ...
appearance.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1990.
The building has a complicated history, in part because it includes parts of two different structures. A house was built c. 1680 in downtown Ipswich, and moved near the Choate Bridge in 1735.
This house, known as the Ross Tavern, remained at that site until it was disassembled and moved to Jeffrey's Neck by Daniel Stone Wendel, an amateur architectural historian, in 1940. Wendel was the son of local American Impressionist Artist Theodore Wendel. Nothing is known of its original owners. Wendel joined the tavern to a second house, the c. 1675–1700 Lord-Collins House, that he also moved to the site. This house is one of a very few First Period homes to provide evidence of a transom window.
See also
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References
Buildings and structures in Essex County, Massachusetts
Houses in Ipswich, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Ipswich, Massachusetts
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts
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