(Click on Picture to enlarge)

               This "old Bowerman house, with its quaintly bowed roof, like the stooped shoulders of an old, old man, has stood in its hollow at West Falmouth, between the high moors and the low salt marshes almost since the settlement of Falmouth. From its door stepped demure Quaker ladies to mount on massive wooden saddles on oxen, to make the fifteen mile journey through the forest to the Friends Meeting at Sandwich, before the first Friends meeting House was built in West Falmouth" (HOF 29).

                We do not know exactly when the beginnings of the ancient Bowerman home were built. It was almost certainly sometime after 1678, the year of Thomas's marriage and also after 6d of 2m 1680/1, on which date Thomas was allotted land back in Sandwich, beside his father-in-law. During the hectic ten years following his marriage, several children were born to Thomas and Mary. They also suffered much persecution for their Quaker faith, which prompted them in 1690 to purchase land and move to the more remote area which is now West Falmouth, apparently in addition to the land they already owned there. The house is not on the main road. It lies out of sight below the road and must be approached by a lane, for the "King's Highway" was not laid out until 1689, apparently after the house was built. (Jenkins, Deyo, Walton Staff)

                With its bowed roof the house is an interesting architectural structure. Not many were built with this unique feature, and only a few still remain on Cape Cod, this being the best preserved of all. No satisfactory explanation has been discovered as to the reason for the curved roof. Otherwise, the building is in a common Cape Cod style, with a typical floor plan (Cecile Bowerman Fuglister in BOF 437-8).

                The site Thomas had chosen for his house was in a sheltered valley near the sea. The nearby salt marshes provided marsh grass hay for bedding horses. Feed for the sheep, cattle, hogs, and poultry was raised on the homestead. Sheep were marked and allowed to roam free during the summer, grazing on the upland meadows. Cranberry bogs were regularly harvested in the fall. Wood lots provided fence posts for the farm and fuel for heating and cooking. Fish were plentiful as well as various types of Shellfish. Herring would be netted in the spring as they came up the rivers to spawn. Beached whales would be captured for their oil, etc., and local Indians had already shown the settlers how to harpoon migrating whales as they passed off Cape Cod. This Bowerman farm, which eventually comprised about 450 acres, was a sheep farm, as was the neighboring family of Gifford's. These and other nearby Quaker families were to intermarry frequently through the following years.

            This area was called by its Indian name, Saconesset, until it was later incorporated as the Town of Falmouth. We know that Thomas(2) was settled in Saconesset by 1690 when he purchased fifty acres of additional land from his father-in-law, Robert Harper, there. It was Thomas(2) who, 3 NOV 1727, deeded the house to his son, Benjamin(3). It was occupied by future generations of Bowerman families until May, 1983, when its ancestral contents were sold at public auction.

            Benjamin (3) Bowerman, who died in 1743, lived at nearby Teaticket and was "part owner of two sloops, the Falmouth and the Woods Hole" (HOF 28). This would indicate that there was early ship-building in the area. Upon Benjamin's death, the ancient Bowerman Homestead became the property of Benjamin's three sons, of whom Daniel (4) by purchase, became the sole owner, bequeathing to his son Barnabus (5) and from then on they alternate Daniel (6) and Barnabus (7) in the generations of Bowermans till we arrive at Daniel (8) Bowerman, father of Mrs. Virtue (Bowerman) Gifford, (HOF 32) the last Bowerman descendant to occupy the old house. Virtue's son, Arnold Bowerman Gifford, occupied the house after his mother died in 1963. Arnold died in 1977 and his wife continued on the homestead.

            There have been additions to the house, naturally, by one or another of the nine generations of Bowermans who were born, lived, and died here; but so sturdy was the frame that the original portion is still clearly traceable. The hand hewn joists and rafters, the two-foot wide wall paneling of pine, disclose that over three hundred years ago Thomas (2) Bowerman built a two-storied house around a huge chimney stack built up of flat stones of gray schist. "The chimney is unique in this part of the country where early settlers favored log cabins with chimneys of the same chinked with clay and moss; and set their hearts on having a chimney of real bricks as the mark of fashion" (HOF 29).

            The Bowerman Homestead "faces the south with an entry in the middle, a small room on either side to the right and left. In the back, the large kitchen runs the length of the building, with a stone room at one end and a "borning room" at the other. A tortuous stairway leads to the attic. The huge chimney forms the central core to the structure, and this, as well as the foundation, was built of gray field-stone from surrounding hills. The base of this original chimney is a massive one, measuring six feet by twelve. Its main kitchen fireplace would easily accommodate a six foot log. Four other fireplaces open into this big chimney, one in each of the two front rooms (bedroom and parlor), one upstairs in an east bedroom, and one in the open attic which was used as the spinning area."

            "The original building was thirty six by twenty eight feet in dimension, with all supporting eight-inch timbers hewn from oak. Sills, corner posts and top plates are also of hand hewn oak. The house was first finished with rough boards applied batten style, then later hand made paneling and doors were installed. Each eighteen-foot rafter is five by fifteen inches where it is notched and locked into the top sill. These rafters then tapered to five inches square, and arched to meet their opposite number at the peak. The arch was achieved by cutting the trees green in summer, hewing them to size, blocking them up at the ends and placing stones in the middle. They were then left to sag and season over the winter, the eighteen-inch sag producing a bow of one inch to the foot."

            "Some fifty years after the original house was built it was lengthened by twenty-two feet, making the structure nearly sixty feet long, with the same bowed roof extended. The addition was plastered and given a finished look, and more plastering was done in other rooms. It became a two family home, with two front doors, two kitchens, two chimneys, and two stairways. Around 1800 an ell was added, extending north from the east gable end. The ell also included a kitchen with a pump and a chimney with a main fireplace and oven, an outside door to the east and one to the west, and an attic stairway. Eventually, as various families and combinations of families lived there, additional features were added, such as the more elaborate front door and entry on the east end into the parlor."

            "A spinning room occupied most of the space in the large early attic. A skylight provided lighting, and the tiny fireplace supplied a degree of heat. The room contained spinning wheels of various design and size, a flax wheel, looms for the weaving of woolen materials and linens, and all the accessories for this important activity. In all the house, this room had been the least altered in appearance, and its wide pine boards are softly mellowed to an ancient brown. Rafters and roof boards are exposed, giving a chance to study the construction of the framing, still strong and sturdy after the passage of over three hundred years."

            "At some point a very large barn (no longer standing today) was built on the rising ground to the north. It had plenty of room for horses and cows, hay mows, wagons, and carriages. Other outbuildings appeared at various times, a "corn-house" near the back door, chicken houses with their runs, a milk-house of stone with its cool interior, and a water trough for the cattle. All of this was approached by a long lane to the west from West Falmouth's main village road. This land, after descending into the hollow with its house, continued on to the marshes and shore of the bay. On the east side of the village road there were extensive woodlands. Many sheep grazed on these lands in the early days, and traces of old walls and fences remain." (E. Philip Brady. "Unusual Arched Roofs Displayed on Cape", Christian Science Monitor, date unknown c. 1967/8)