Cooper-Frost-Austin House Reimagining and Exterior Preservation

Historic New England is undertaking an exterior preservation campaign at Cooper-Frost-Austin House, while considering options for interior restoration, new site interpretation and, and improvements to the visitor experience.

The primary focus of the exterior campaign is the carriage shed, a historic three-bay structure that dates from circa 1811 and connects to the main house. This space serves as the site’s primary gathering space and the starting point for guided tours. Significant threats to the structure caused by erosion and splash-back (due to a lack of gutters) include dislodged brick flooring and rapidly deteriorating posts and woodwork. To address these issues and improve the structure’s integrity and use as a visitor entrance and orientation space, the project scope of work will include:

• Installation of a gutter along the rear elevation of the carriage shed to mitigate problems caused by runoff and prevent erosion.
• Adding pilings to stabilize the damaged and unsupported posts.
• Re-laying bricks as necessary and replacing materials lost to erosion.
• Installation of a small landing and ramp to improve accessibility to the main house.
• Additional carpentry repairs on the carriage shed and main house, predominantly in moisture-prone, low-to-the-ground locations.
• Full exterior painting of the carriage shed and house.

Photos

Exterior Project Goals:

• Resolve significant threats to the building’s historic fabric, bolster the site’s resiliency to weather extremes, improve access to the house, and position Historic New England to finalize plans for expanded public access and engagement at the site.

We have also engaged an architect to develop a schematic design for site improvements that will support accessibility goals and plans for future use.

Planning Project goals:

• Identify ways to restore areas previously altered to accommodate a tenant apartment to their original seventeenth-century layouts, increasing interpretive potential and allowing for regular public access to the house

The project is supported by generous grants from:

• Preservation Massachusetts and the 1772 Foundation
• Cambridge Historical Commission
• The National Trust for Historic Preservation

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