The 1750 cape saltbox at 57 High Street was built by Robert Stone and has many original features including wide pine floors. The separate workshop/barn on the northwest corner is believed to be a former cobbler shop, once connected to the house.
The first deed mentioning this little “Cape” dates to 1807 (182:292), when Robert Stone sold the house to William Robbins. Stylistic features, such as vertical feather edge sheathing, indicate the early construction of the house. William Rust bought the house in 1851 and his heirs occupied the estate into the 20th century. The house was renovated in 1969-70.
The very old photograph above was shared by Lucy Ardell Kimball in 1958 which she identified as the “Abraham Lummus house.” The small building on the left was once a cobbler shop. It was moved a few feet to the edge of the lot on the west side of the house.
Thomas Franklin Waters wrote in Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, “Isaac Lummus bequeathed the western half of the old Jonathan Lummus homestead to his nephews John and Abraham, sons of William Lummus, approved 1849. Abram Lummus son of Abraham and other heirs sold to John C. Low May 12, 1882 and it is described as still containing eight acres more or less. It was sold by him to John B. Brown and by Mr. Brown to Chester W. Bamford. The house was built in all probability during the Lummus ownership. The small piece adjoining the Wallis Rust land was sold by Capt. John Hodgkins to his son John, and sold by Caroline E. Hodgkins to Olive R. Ross Nov 5, 1869. John Leander Gaudette and his wife Ida lived in this house in the early 1900’s.
View MACRIS: IPS.123
Historic Ipswich 