Higgins, Jedediah, House
26 Higgins Hollow Rd., North Truro, MAThe significance of the Jedediah Higgins House lies with it being representative of the 19th-century version of a Cape Cod house architectural style which originated in basic form in the late 17th century and is still a prominent architectural style on Cape Cod today.
The primary features which make this house an important example of this architectural type are its central facade, floor plan, and interior finishes. The basically intact and unaltered central facade typifies a Cape Cod double-house with its south orientation and its symmetrical placement of two windows on either side of a central front doorway. Similarly, the floor plan with its arrangement of a central entrance flanked by two south rooms and a north room around a central chimney, and bedrooms upstairs is typical for a Cape Cod house and is basically intact. Likewise, the interior of the house with its wood paneling, wainscoting, and wide floorboards
is basically unaltered from its 19th-century origins and typifies the architectural style of interior finishes during that era.
The 20th-century modifications to the house (all addition and a dormer) are easily identifiable and respect the original structure. Furthermore, they are consistent with traditional evolutionary modifications to Cape Cod houses.
The purposes of Cape Cod National Seashore include the preservation of notable examples of Cape Cod style houses and the preservation of the historic scene within the seashore. A recent survey (Pfeiffer 1981) of 110 structures that the Park Service owns or will acquire within the seashore area identified five 19th-century Cape Cod-style houses.
The Higgins House was constructed in the 19th century as a Cape Cod style double house. It is one of the least altered examples of the 19th century Cape Cod style double house among those that the Park Service owns.
The Higgins House, furthermore, is an important reminder of the human settlement and agricultural activities that once dominated the Truro countryside. Although almost all the former fields now are reforested, the remaining rural farmhouses, such as the Higgins House, are crucial remnants of the 18th and 19th-century historic scene of the outer Cape, telling evidence that the area is substantially a cultural landscape.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The 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.