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Cooper–Frost–Austin House

1682 establishments in MassachusettsBuildings and structures completed in 1682Historic New EnglandHistoric house museums in MassachusettsHistory of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Houses completed in the 17th centuryHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, MassachusettsLandmarks in Cambridge, MassachusettsMuseums in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cooper Frost Austin House, Cambridge, Massachusetts front
Cooper Frost Austin House, Cambridge, Massachusetts front

The Cooper–Frost–Austin House is a historic Colonial American house, built in 1681. It is located at 21 Linnaean Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the oldest extant home in Cambridge and is owned and operated as a non-profit museum by Historic New England. The house is rarely open for public tours, but private tours can be arranged during the summer months. The house was built by Samuel Cooper on land that his father, Deacon John Cooper, had owned since 1657, and was first documented in 1689 in The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in the "New Towne" (as Cambridge was then named). Its original structure was a single room and chimney bay in width, two and one half stories in height with an integral lean-to, containing a "low room," "little room," "kitchin," "Chamber," "kitchin Chamber," "Garret," and "Cellar," all of which still exist, as do the original chimney and a facade gable. The house was extended ca. 1720 by Cooper's son, and then again between 1807 and 1816 by Martha Frost Austin and Thomas Austin who added an enclosed porch and Federal style stairway and trim. The house was acquired by Historic New England in 1912.In 2002 the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory analyzed wooden beams from the original structure and ascertained that donor trees were felled at the following times: Winter 1675–6, Winter 1680–81, and Spring 1681. The oldest timber may have been stockpiled before construction.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cooper–Frost–Austin House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Cooper–Frost–Austin House
Linnaean Street, Cambridge

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N 42.38449 ° E -71.12184 °
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Cooper-Frost-Austin House

Linnaean Street 17;21
02140 Cambridge
Massachusetts, United States
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Cooper Frost Austin House, Cambridge, Massachusetts front
Cooper Frost Austin House, Cambridge, Massachusetts front
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The Dunvegan
The Dunvegan

The Dunvegan is an historic apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was built in 1898 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.According to a promotional booklet published in 1899, its name is derived from that of Scotland's Dunvegan Castle, whose coat of arms is worked into the apartment's stained glass windows. It was constructed 25 feet from its adjoining apartment block, The Montrose, with which it connects via an underground passage. Both buildings are of the same height and similar size (six stories, with a frontage of eighty-five feet), built of the same materials, and with a similar architectural appearance, although the Montrose's floorplan is roughly rectangular but the Dunvegan's is triangular. The Dunvegan's vestibules, front hall, and stairway are finished in Siena marble, mahogany, and mosaic floors. Each of its twelve suites originally consisted of ten rooms and a bath, as follows: parlor, reception room, library, dining room, four bedrooms, kitchen and servant's room, bathroom, servant's water closet, and butler's pantry. The building also contained twelve bachelor suites of two rooms and a bath apiece. When constructed, the building was wired for doorbells and electric lights, and piped for gas and hot and cold running water. Heating was provided by low-pressure steam. In the 1930s the buildings were reworked into one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. The buildings are now served by Best Choice Apartments Shortill Realty. The firm is located on the first floor of the Montrose Building. The buildings have been well cared for and many original details remain.