Avant House

The Avant House is significant locally under National Register Criteria A, B, and C. Built c. 1830, it is one of the earliest surviving residential structures in Mashpee and one of the only examples of an early Half Cape house in the town. It is also significant for its association with the development of Mashpee, its various owners and inhabitants representing the variety of ethnic groups and trades that were common in the community as it evolved from a plantation to a district to a town. Finally, the Avant House is significant for its association with Timothy Pocknet, a locally prominent Native American who owned and lived at the property from 1863 until his death in 1888.

Built circa 1830, the Avant House is one of the earliest surviving residential structures in Mashpee, built during a time when there were still numerous wickiups or wigwams recorded in the area. While the Half Cape style is a typical architectural form in the region and most Cape Cod towns have numerous residential structures from earlier periods, few structures in Mashpee predate this building. In 1762, Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, visited Mashpee and described 75 families living there in approximately 60 wigwams and 6 houses. Under the control or guardianship of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony through much of the 18th and 19th century, the Mashpee Indians could not employ persons to build residences on the reservation until 1725, so few structures were built there during the 18th century. With the creation of the Indian District of Mashpee in 1834, limited self-government was allowed, and homes of a more permanent style were constructed. The District Act required the Indians to keep a list of Mashpee proprietors qualified to vote and allowed them to elect local officials including a clerk, three selectmen and one or more constables with oversight from a Commissioner appointed by the Governor. With these changes, more structures were built in North Mashpee in the vicinity of the Avant House, including a Town Hall, the North Mashpee School, and the Hotel Attaquin.

The original owner of the house is believed to have been Captain John Phinney, born on Nantucket in August 1808. During Phinney's ownership, the property was described as one-half acre, with houselot and buildings. In the early 1800s, parcels of land were sometimes granted to persons who made improvements to the land, such as cultivation or construction of a building. The Act of 1819 recognized such private ownership of real estate acquired by the industry of the proprietor. Phinney may have acquired the property by making such an improvement - perhaps by building the house. Phinney was one of the twenty white families living and owning land in Mashpee as listed in the 1820 Mashpee census. John Phinney was married to Chloe H., born at Spring Hill near the Quaker Church on April 15, 1804. They had six children born in Mashpee between the years of 1836 and 1846. The property's location adjacent to Mill Pond, the Mashpee River, and good agricultural land make it likely that Phinney was associated with the nearby Collins Mill or the Bourne Mill site on the south side of Mashpee Pond during his ownership of this property.

In the mid 1800s, Phinney sold the property to E. B. Howland, and upon his death the property was passed to his heir, Ellis Howland. During the Howlands' ownership, the property appears to have been leased or otherwise used by tenants. At the end of Ellis Howland's ownership, the property was occupied by "representatives of Daniel B. Amos late of Mashpee deceased." Amos owned a packet business.

In 1863, the property was sold to Timothy Pocknet, a Wampanoag. Timothy Pocknet was born in 1804 in Mashpee, the son of Benjamin and Lois Pocknet. Lois was the daughter of Jeremiah and Reliance Squib. The Squibs came to Mashpee in the late 1700s, but the Pocknets (various spellings are found - Pognet, Pognett, etc.) are named in the earliest written records of Mashpee. Timothy Pocknet first married Mary Ann Mingo Brown, a widow, and second another widow Leah Lewis Queppish. Leah was the daughter of James Lewis, recorded in Mashpee Vital Records as a runaway slave. Timothy and Leah accumulated many acres of land, as recorded in the "Records of Deeds, Allotments and Proprietories Held in Severalty by the Proprietors of Marshpee.” Timothy Pocknet owned 60 acres near John's Pond in the western part of Mashpee, distributed to him as part of the Act of 1842, which divided a major portion of Mashpee's lands into private ownership by setting off 60 acres for each male and female proprietor of the age of 21. Other large parcels were acquired from his brother, Joshua Pocknet, totaling approximately 65 acres. In addition, Timothy Pocknet owned 7 acres of cleared and pasture land across the road from the house. Leah Pocknet also owned substantial lands from her first husband, John Queppish, who was involved in agriculture, and approximately 20 acres inherited from her mother and father.

In the Records of District Meetings of Mashpee, Timothy Pocknet was appointed a "Pound Keeper” for most years between 1865 and 1876. The pound keeper was likely responsible for managing cattle and other animals, and for keeping them from running on common lands. Timothy Pocknet was also one of those who signed a letter to the Governor and Council in 1833 regarding an organized call for self-government. This call was led by William Apess, a Pequot preacher residing in Mashpee at the time, and ultimately resulted in the Act Creating the District of Mashpee in 1834. Timothy Pocknet died in 1888. When Leah Pocknet died in 1890, after 27 years of Pocknet ownership, the house was sold to Lysander B. Godfrey. In the deed, it is referred to as the “Timothy Pocknet Homestead."

Lysander Godfrey was born in Mashpee in 1845, the son of Samuel Godfrey who was born in the West Indies, a mariner, and Hannah Mye. Hannah's ancestors probably trace back to Newport Mye, who is listed by Reverend Gideon Hawley as "a Negro" in 1776. Lysander Godfrey is called a mariner in the deed, but he also purchased many acres of bogs and sand for cranberry cultivation. By this time in Mashpee's history, several people were involved in the cranberry business. Lysander Godfrey married Mary C. of Glasgow, Scotland, in Scotland according to the 1900 census. Mary predeceased Lysander, who later married a neighbor, the widow Angeline Pompey Lewis. Upon Godfrey's death, the house and one-half acre of land were purchased in 1918 by one of their mortgage holders, William Makepeace, for $550. Makepeace was also involved in the cranberry business. The property was then passed to Fletcher Clark, February 19, 1919.

Fletcher Clark of Sandwich sold "The Timothy Pocknet Homestead" to George E. Avant for one dollar and other valuable consideration" on March 12, 1919. The deed states "a certain piece or parcel of land with the buildings thereon situated in the central part of Mashpee, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, known as the Timothy Pocknet Homestead, bounded as follows - commencing on the Snake Pond and Cotuit Road at the northwest corner of the premises and at the northeast corner of a lot of cleared land, now or formerly of David Lovell, at or near a post standing in the corner of a fence; thence easterly by said Snake Pond and Cotuit Road and land formerly belonging to the Bourne Mill Site, but now or formerly of O. M. Holmes to the west bank of the Mashpee River; thence southerly by the westerly bank of said river to land now or formerly of David Lovell; thence westerly by said Lovell land to a fence and land now or formerly of said Lovell; thence northerly by said land and fence to the first mentioned bound or point of beginning. Containing one-half an acre, more or less. Being a part of the same premises conveyed to me by William F. Makepeace and to him by Edgar W. Lovell, Admr. Estate of Lysander B. Godfrey, by deed."

George E. Avant was the son of John Avant and Susan Low Avant. George Avant married Mabel Pocknet, the daughter of Willard Pocknet and Anna Attaquin, on March 8, 1910. George Avant was a meat inspector and a farmer who, like several previous owners of the house, gathered a significant amount of land. In 1925, a few years after their purchase of the Pocknet Homestead, the Avants also bought the adjacent Lovell farm, which contained a house and barn. After George Avant's death, the property remained the home of Mabel Avant. Mabel Avant served as Town Clerk and as Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Historian. She was a local authority on tribal matters, a strong political advocate, and a "Medicine Woman" of the Mashpee Wampanoags. Her home was considered the story telling center, and she is remembered for her storytelling of Indian legends and superstitions.

Reginald Avant received title to the property through the Estate of George E. Avant. He sold the property, still known as the Timothy Pocknet Homestead, to Carl A. Avant for nominal consideration in 1966, reserving for and during his natural life a life estate in the premises.

In the 1960s, the development boom in Mashpee brought concern over the loss of Wampanoag history and prompted individuals to identify a site for a Mashpee Wampanoag Museum. Town meeting approved the purchase and restoration of the former Avant House for this purpose, and Barbara Peters, conservator of Carl A. Avant, sold the property for $4,400 to the inhabitants of the Town of Mashpee, on February 10, 1970. The museum was established under the guidance of several Wampanoag descendants and the Mashpee Historical Commission in 1970. It opened in July 1973, with a dedication ceremony on July 15th. The museum was closed for several years in the late 1970s while the Town and the Wampanoags were embroiled in a land suit regarding the rightful ownership of the land in Mashpee. The museum was subsequently re-opened and since then, the town and the Wampanoag Tribal Council have negotiated a transfer of ownership of the building. The Town of Mashpee gave the museum to the Tribal Council in early 1998.