Rowell House

The Rowell House (ca. 1731) near Gull Pond in Wellfleet is the earliest surviving half cape known in the town, a rare three-bay, story-and-a-half form with a side entry and interior end chimney built with the expectation of future expansion into a full cape. It stands in an early inland population center of Wellfleet clustered around freshwater ponds along the colonial King's Highway and was long associated with local mariners such as Richard Newcomb, Jonas Larritt, and David Pierce. Walter P. Rowell bought the house as a summer home in 1896, reflecting Wellfleet's late-19th-century transformation into a seasonal resort, and it has remained in the Rowell family since. The house is remarkably intact and lies within the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Rowell 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 41.9535, -70.0132 near Wellfleet. The nearest cataloged historic site is Weidlinger, Paul and Madeleine House (landmark), about 0.7 miles away. Others within a short drive include Breuer, Marcel House and Studio, Newcomb, John House, and Tisza, Vera and Laszlo House.

This record is drawn from public historical records. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.