Built in 1680, the Ross Tavern is a historic First Period house at Strawberry Hill on Jeffrey’s Neck Road in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It is a wood-frame clapboard building made up of two different historic houses.
The tavern originally began as a small house located in downtown Ipswich that was later moved to a site next to the Choate Bridge in 1735. The left-hand rooms and the chimney bay of the existing house are a part of that original structure. The house was then enlarged after the move by the addition of the right-hand rooms.
In the 19th century, the building became known as the Ross Tavern. In 1940, the tavern was moved by Daniel Stone Wendel, an amateur architectural historian, from its location near the Choate Bridge to its current location on Jeffrey’s Neck Road.
Wendell also moved another building, an ell that was once part of the 17th-century-era Lord-Collins House, to the property and adjoined it to the left rear of Ross Tavern and added a kitchen to the right-hand side of the house. He then restored the house to its original 17th-century appearance.
The restoration took over 10 years, and the newly restored house reopened to the public during an open house exhibit at the town’s annual 17th Century Day festivities on August 9, 1952.
On March 9, 1990, Ross Tavern was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources:
“Historic Building Detail: IPS.466 Ross Tavern.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=IPS.466
“Ipswich’s Ross Tavern, Built in 1670s, Carefully Restored, Will Be in Open House Exhibit.” Newburyport Daily News, 21 Jul. 1952, p. 2.
“Ross Tavern Feature of Ipswich Event.” Wakefield Daily Item, 24 Jul. 1952, p. 10.