National Register Listing
From this point across the meadow to the island was passable only by horse and wagon. Six inches to ten inches of water usually covered the meadow and road.
On this historic island, the original site of the Town of Wellfleet, lived and died many of those brave and hardy souls that wrote some of our early history...." Quoting Higgins further:
Atwood, Thomas, House
a.k.a. Atwood-Higgins House
NW of Wellfleet on Boundbrook Island, Wellfleet, MAQuoting Higgins,
"This is a record of what I have done to restore the old family homestead, Boundbrook Island, Wellfleet, Mass.. as well as an effort to properly record by years the history of all additions such as buildings, fences, water supply and improvements as they occurred, and to supply a guide providing reliable information to those who follow after." Thus wrote George K. Higgins in a preface to his invaluable documentary on the restoration of his ancestral home. He says further... "the house (belonged) to my great grandmother and great grandfather, Mercy and Thomas Atwood....Captain Edward B. Atwood...gave me this old house in 1919. Neglected and almost abandoned since the death of Thomas Atwood in 1873, the old house, when I came to it, showed all this too plainly. The nearest approach by car stopped at the end of Pamet Point Road."
From this point across the meadow to the island was passable only by horse and wagon. Six inches to ten inches of water usually covered the meadow and road.
On this historic island, the original site of the Town of Wellfleet, lived and died many of those brave and hardy souls that wrote some of our early history...." Quoting Higgins further:
"An old house is a constant care. Captain Atwood ran this house back to 1680 but said it was even older Antiquarians in my time have dated it 1650 minus. It was a half-house before it was a whole (double) house. It once no doubt bore an outside chimney. The east half is much older than the west half. Reading the history and expansion of the Bay Colony causes me to believe 1635-40 would be fairly accurate. Thomas Atwood bought it in 1805 for $396.96."
An interesting historical note states that "the first vessel built in Wellfleet of which we have any record was the schooner Freemason, built under the hill below the Thomas Atwood place on Boundbrook Island about 1800. This craft was of 100 tons burden......"
Another historical note: If the original homestead dates as early as 1635, the original builder not only lived among Indians, but probably lived here without permission of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth--the Fathers were very jealous of their authority to grant settling on Cape Cod. Eastham itself was not settled until 1644. However, George E. Willison in the history of the Pilgrims (Saints and Strangers), Chap. XXI, says, regarding families moving to Nauset on Cape Cod in 1644..." the leaders in the agitation (to have their land rights respected) had already staked out fields and started buildings on the Cape, and insistently asked permission to proceed, which at
length was granted. Local significance of the building:Architecture
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1976.About National Register ListingsThe National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.