MassachusettsA contributing property in the Atwood--Higgins Historic Distsrict, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Established as a homestead on a Cape Cod peninsula in Wellfleet, this roughly 24-acre district centers on the Atwood-Higgins House, built about 1730 and one of the oldest and best-preserved Colonial-period Cape Cod cottages in the town. For more than 150 years the property was occupied by descendants of the Nauset settlers associated with the local maritime economy. In the early 20th century George Higgins transformed it from a year-round residence into an idealized seasonal retreat, adding re-created buildings and landscaping in a way that exemplifies the era's heritage-tourism impulse to experience a nostalgic historic place. The property passed to the National Park Service in 1961.
Atwood - Higgins House
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Atwood - Higgins House is a landmark in Wellfleet, Barnstable County. It is one of 6,558 landmarks documented in Barnstable County, among 6,897 historic sites cataloged across the county on MassRoam.
The site sits at 41.9539, -70.0591 near Wellfleet. The nearest cataloged historic site is Atwood - Higgins House Privy (landmark), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Higgins, George Woodshed, Atwood - Higgins Wellhouse, and Atwood - Higgins Summer House.
This record is drawn from public historical records. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
The Atwood-Higgins House on Bound Brook Island in Wellfleet is the oldest house within the Cape Cod National Seashore, built about 1730 by Thomas Higgins as a modest half-Cape and later enlarged, with a final addition around 1820. It belonged to the Atwood family from 1805 until 1919, when Captain Edward B. Atwood gave it to George Higgins, a descendant of the original builder, who spent some four decades restoring it. Higgins donated the property to the National Park Service in 1961, the year the National Seashore was established. It is open for seasonal guided tours.
Sources: nps.goven.wikipedia.org
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