National Register of Historic Places

Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing

Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Listed
September 17, 1989
Type
Building
Period
Early Republic
Ref No.
89001257

About this property

The Cooper–Davenport Tavern Wing is a historic building in Somerville, Massachusetts. Built c. 1806 by John Davenport as a wing to a 1757 tavern built by Jonathan Cooper, this is one of the few Federal-period buildings to survive in the city. Moved to its present location in the 1880s, it now houses residences. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. The Cooper–Davenport Tavern Wing is located at the north corner of Harris and Eustis Streets, in a densely-built residential area on the border between Somerville and Cambridge southeast of Porter Square. The building is a roughly rectangular two-story wood-frame structure, with a hip roof and clapboard siding. The front of the building faces northeast, and is four bays wide, with the entrance in the second bay from the right. It is flanked by pilasters and topped by an eyebrow transom window and a gabled pediment. A pair of brick chimneys pierce the left side of the roof. In 1757 Jonathan Cooper built a large house at the corner of what are now Beech Street and Massachusetts Avenue just north of what is now Porter Square. He was soon operating a tavern on the premises in what was then just beginning to develop as a commercial area. The Middlesex Turnpike opened on the route of Massachusetts Avenue in 1806, bringing additional business to the tavern. John Davenport, its owner at that time, constructed the present structure as a wing to the building Cooper built. By the 1880s the building was in decline, and the property was acquired for the construction of St. James Episcopal Church. The 1757 building was razed, and the wing was moved to its present location c. 1888. It is now used as a multi-unit residence. National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerville, Massachusetts

Location

81 Eustis St.
Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
42.38370, -71.11362

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

House at 6 Kent Court
Industrial
0.2 mi
Garfield Street Historic District
Civil War
0.2 mi
Homer-Lovell House
Industrial
0.2 mi
Frost, Walter, House
Industrial
0.3 mi
Saunders, William, House
Industrial
0.3 mi

Nearby Battles

Siege of Boston – Cambridge Lines
1775Revolutionary War
0.7 mi

Questions about this property

When was Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing listed on the National Register?

Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1989.

What type of historic resource is Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing?

Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing?

The period of significance for Cooper-Davenport Tavern Wing is recorded as the early_republic era.

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