Cooper-Frost-Austin House
- Year
- 1681
- Style
- colonial
- City
- Boston, MA
Samuel Cooper built this house in 1681 on Linnaean Street in Cambridge, on land his father had owned since 1657 — it is the oldest extant home in Cambridge, first documented in 1689 in the town's Register Book of Lands and Houses. Historic New England has owned and operated it as a museum since 1912, though it is rarely open to the public.
the building
Grown room by room. The original house was a single room and chimney bay wide, two and a half stories with an integral lean-to, holding a low room, little room, kitchen, chamber, kitchen chamber, garret, and cellar — all of which, along with the original chimney and a facade gable, still survive. Cooper's son extended it around 1720, and Martha Frost Austin and Thomas Austin extended it again between 1807 and 1816, adding an enclosed porch and a Federal-style stairway and trim.
the style
A colonial one-room-deep house form from 1681, later overlaid with Federal-era additions made by the Austin family in the early 19th century.
significance
The oldest extant home in Cambridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operated as a non-profit museum by Historic New England since 1912.
nearby
- Stillman F. Kelley House
- J. A. Wood House
- North Avenue Congregational Church
- Grace Hopkinson Eliot Hall
- Cloverden
- Asa Gray House