The Capt. Benjamin James House is a historic First Period house, now a museum, at 301 Driftway in

Scituate, Massachusetts Scituate () is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census. History The Wampanoag and their neighbors have inhabited ...

. The oldest part of this -story timber-frame house was built c. 1700 by Captain Benjamin James. During the 18th century it was enlarged to its present five-bay saltbox configuration. After James' death in 1788, the house was used by the town as a "pest house", isolating

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

victims there. The house is now home of the Maritime and Irish Mossing Museum, owned and maintained by the Scituate Historical Society. There are exhibits of the mossing industry, ship building on the North River, shipwrecks, life saving. It is open Sunday afternoons, 1–4 p.m. Sept through June. Sat and Sun, July and August. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1983.

References

Houses in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Scituate, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Museums in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts {{PlymouthCountyMA-NRHP-stub

See also

References