Avant House (Mashpee, Massachusetts)

Avant House
Location Mashpee, Massachusetts
Coordinates 41°38′57″N 70°29′12″W / 41.64917°N 70.48667°WCoordinates: 41°38′57″N 70°29′12″W / 41.64917°N 70.48667°W
Built 1830
Architectural style Other
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference #

98001382

[1]
Added to NRHP December 3, 1998

The Avant House is an historic house and site of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Museum. It is located on Massachusetts Route 130 at Mill Pond in Mashpee, Massachusetts.

The house was built circa 1793 by the great-grandson of Richard Bourne, a missionary who was one of Mashpee's first colonial settlers.[2] For many years the house belonged to Mabel Avant, a respected Wampanoag elder and tribal historian. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, concerned about rapid development on Cape Cod, the tribe began restoring the building, and opened it as a museum in 1973, with great pride and excitement.[3] Its first director and driving force was Amelia Peters Bingham. However, the museum was soon shut down by the town of Mashpee amid conflict over Mashpee Tribe v. New Seabury Corp., in which the tribe attempted to regain thousands of acres land that had been illegally sold during the nineteenth century.[4] The building was returned to the tribe in 1998.[5] With renovations ongoing, the Museum is open once again to the Mashpee community and its visitors.

In 1998, the Avant House was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15.
  2. ↑ Soliz, Chester (2011). The Historical Footprints of the Mashpee Wampanoag. Sarasota, FL: Bardolf & Company. p. 107.
  3. ↑ Campisi, Jack (1991). Mashpee: Tribe on Trial. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 146.
  4. ↑ Peters, Russell (1987). The Wampanoags of Mashpee. Barnstable, MA: Media Action. p. 76.
  5. ↑ Boston Children's Museum. "Teacher Resources on Native American History and Culture". Retrieved 26 September 2013.

External links