The Story of the Nathan Cobb Cottage
The Nathan Cobb Cottage is a one and a half story residential building that was constructed in 1897 by a local man named William Fagen using salvaged cargo lumber and wood parts from the ship wreck of the wooden three-masted Nathan F. Cobb schooner, which ran aground off the coast of Ormond (now Ormond Beach), Florida in 1896.1 The cottage is located at 137 Orchard Lane, Ormond Beach, Florida 32176.
In 1890, the Nathan F. Cobb ship (photo 1) was built in Rockland, Maine. It was a threemasted, square rigged schooner which was 167.2 feet long with a beam width of 32.1 feet and weighed 656 tons.2 The ship was named after Nathan F. Cobb, a ship builder, who was born in 1797 in Eastham, Massachusetts. His family moved to Northampton County, Virginia and eventually purchased Sand Shoal Island, which later became known as Cobb Island. In 1839, he and his sons founded Cobb’s Salvaging Company and they became very well-known in the business of wrecking and salvaging stranded ships along the Mid-Atlantic coastline. The Cobb Salvaging Company amassed an impressive record of rescue efforts of at least 37 ships without a loss of a single life. The Cobb family gained a reputation for their humanity and generosity as they were known to have cared for and housed crews of ten to twenty sailors that became stranded on their island. It was the Cobb family and other trailblazing wreckers and salvagers of the nineteenth century who led the way to form the United States Life-Saving Service in 1848, which later merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915.3
On November 28, 1896, the Nathan F. Cobb departed from Brunswick, Georgia with her crew of eight men on its way to New York City with a cargo of railroad cross ties and timber on what would be the ship’s last voyage. On December 1, 1896, the ship encountered strong Nor’easter storms at the Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear in North Carolina and capsized. Two crewman, Daniel Parker and F.W. Beal, were flung overboard and drown in the turbulent ocean waters. The surviving crewman were able to save the ship from sinking by removing the main
1
The Wrecked Schooner – Additional Details of the
of the Cobb’s Crew. The Daily Picayune – New Orleans, LA. December 7, 1896. p. 2.
2 Nathan F. Cobb. Ship Spotting World. http://ship.spottingworld.com/Nathan_F._Cobb Accessed January 29, 2021 3 Ibid.
and mizzen masts, but the ship was in dire straits as it was waterlogged and had no power to maneuver itself. The ship drifted southward for about four days and traveled 375 miles until it ran aground on a sandbar about 1000 feet off the coast of Ormond, Florida on December 5, 1896.4
Local residents discovered the wrecked ship in the early morning hours of December 6, 1896 and realized the crew was stranded. J.D. Price, manager of the Ormond Hotel, began gathering a group of local people to assist in rescue efforts. Meanwhile, Hiram B. Shaw, Superintendent of the United States Life-Saving Service’s Seventh Life-Saving District, was called to the scene. Shaw telegraphed the Jupiter, Florida Inlet Life Saving Station and requested life-saving beach apparatus to be sent by train from Jupiter to Ormond, Florida. He also had a small surf boat moved to the beach and purchased ropes and other equipment needed for the rescue attempt. About fifty local people joined Shaw, but the rescue attempt was delayed until low tide. Six attempts to reach the Nathan F. Cobb were unsuccessful as the ocean currents outmatched the small boats. A small metallic dingy (iron yawl) was then launched and manned by local residents Tom Fagen and Freeman Waterhouse. They nearly reached the stranded ship when a large wave struck their boat and flipped it over forcing them into the rough ocean waters. Fagen managed to swim ashore, but Waterhouse returned to the small boat and attempted to steady it as men on shore began pulling it towards the beach by its tow ropes. Another large wave struck the boat and threw Waterhouse into the ocean. He was seen struggling to hang onto an oar but soon went under the surface and drowned. Several searches failed to locate Waterhouse’s body and he was never recovered.5 Shaken by witnessing the drowning of a rescuer Captain Benner of the Nathan F. Cobb said, “They have sacrificed one man in their efforts to save us; now I’ll risk my life in an attempt to get ashore.”6 He then jumped off the ship after securing a rope around his waist and battled the waves as a rescue boat manned by Hiram B. Shaw and Edward DeCourcy was able to reach him and escort him to the safety of the beach. The other five stranded crewmen were then rescued
4 Stanton, John F. The Story of the Wreck. 1955. Located at: Nathan Cobb records. Ormond Beach Historical Society
5 Schooner Goes Ashore. Weekly Transcript – Little Falls, Minnesota. December 11, 1896, p. 5.
6 Stanton, John F. The Story of the Wreck. 1955. Located at: Nathan Cobb records. Ormond Beach Historical Society
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and given coffee, whiskey and a blanket before being taken to an area hospital.7
The General Superintendent of the United States Life Saving Service, Sumner Increase Kimball, wrote a letter of praise and appreciation to Edward DeCourcy and acknowledged all the other local people who assisted in the rescue of the six surviving Nathan F. Cobb crewmen.8
The death of Freeman Waterhouse was quite a local story and tragedy as Tom Fagen wrote, “If you see any of the friends of Waterhouse you can tell them he died in as noble arid brave a cause, as any man ever did...”9 A large boulder stone was sent to John Anderson and Joseph Price from Cape Elizabeth, Maine to stand as a monument near the site of the ship wreck to the bravery of Freeman Waterhouse. A bronze plaque, which has Waterhouse’s first name misspelled, was attached that reads:
FREED WATERHOUSE BORN DEC. 22,1873 AT CAPE ELIZABETH, MAINE DROWNED IN THE SURF OPPOSITE THIS POINT IN ATTEMPTING WITH THOMAS FAGEN OF ORMOND, THE RESCUE OF THE CREW OF THE SCHOONER, NATHAN F. COBB, WRECKED HERE DEC. 5th, 189610
The Nathan F. Cobb schooner remained stranded right off the shore of Ormond as it was beyond economic repair (photos 2 & 3). It was salvaged for its wood and freight (photo 4) and what remained of it eventually disappeared under the water. More than 120 years later, remnants of the ship’s hull can occasionally be seen after violent storms and ocean waves disrupt the area’s sandbars (photo 5).
SETTING
Ormond Beach was originally called New Britain from 1874 to 1880, then Ormond from 1880 to 1950, and on April 25, 1950 Ormond was renamed to Ormond Beach. The City of Ormond Beach is located in northeastern Florida, in Volusia County. During the late 1800s, the
7 The Story of the Wreck of the Nathan F. Cobb. The Buffalo Weekly Express. December 10, 1896, p. 5.
8 Stanton, John F. The Story of the Wreck. 1955. Located at: Nathan Cobb records. Ormond Beach Historical Society.
9 Letter from William Fagen to John Anderson. December 6, 1896. Located at: Nathan Cobb records. Ormond Beach Historical Society.
10 Strickland, Alice. Ormond-on-the-Halifax: A Centennial History of Ormond Beach, Florida. Ormond Beach, FL: Alice Strickland, 1980, p. 89.
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remote settlement grew from only a few residents, log cabins and palmetto structures with scattered agricultural fields, orange groves and live oak tree harvesting to a town with wood framed houses, bridges, roads, railroad transportation, restaurants and a large hotel that catered to the tourist industry and the wealthy class.11 Beginning in the early 1900s, world-class automobile beach racing gave the town of Ormond the moniker of “The Birthplace of Speed.”12 Throughout the 1900s and into the 21st century, Ormond Beach continued to grow into a modern tourist, retirement destination and residential seaside community.
DESCRIPTION
Exterior
The Nathan Cobb Cottage originally included a wood outer kitchen and dog-trot,13 (photo 6) which were also built from pieces of salvaged wood from the Nathan F. Cobb schooner. Both the outer kitchen and most of the dog-trot were removed in the 1920s. The original roof of the Nathan Cobb Cottage was covered with wood shakes shingles and included two dormer windows on its front side. The wood shakes shingles and dormer windows were removed and replaced with a composite shingle roof around 1965. The brick chimney is original.
The Nathan Cobb Cottage stands on brick pier supports and has a rectangular plan that measures 23’ x 17’ with a protruding kitchen extension (photo 7) on its northeastern side that is a remnant of its original dog-trot that measures 6’ x 11’ which makes the structure 457 square feet. The exterior walls are constructed of railroad ties that were positioned vertically and are now mostly covered with cedar shakes siding (photo 8). The main roof is a wood framed gable design that is now covered with standing seam metal. The extended kitchen area has matching standing seam metal roof covering. A matching extended seam metal roof covering extends 4 feet from the rear wall which partially covers the exterior deck area.
The front (west) side of the building (photo 9) includes 3 modern single hung windows with 12 panes each and one main door along with a modern screen door. The window on the
11 Strickland, Alice. Ormond-on-the-Halifax: A Centennial History of Ormond Beach, Florida. Ormond Beach, FL: Alice Strickland, 1980, p. 89, p. 114.
12 Ibid., p. 142.
13 A dog-trot is a term used in the southern United States to describe an open-ended passageway that connects two structures. This type of passageway is also often referred to as a breezeway.
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north side is positioned higher than the two on the south side.
The north section of the exterior wall is covered with cedar shakes siding. The windows on the south side are positioned on either side of the front door entrance. Original ship knee wood is affixed on both sides of the front door (photo 10), and original railroad tie wood (photo 11) is still exposed around the front entrance and around the two south side windows. The front door is a custom-built rustic design that is painted white and made from solid wood vertical paneled boards supported by two horizontal cross braces. Originally, there was a wood deck porch that extended the length of the building that had pieces of the ship’s sole that were used for floor boards and ship balustrades which served as railings (photo 12). This porch was removed due to wood rot and a portion of it around the front door was replaced with bricks in the 1940s. A larger modern brick porch that extends the entire length of the structure was completed in the 1990s.
The north side of the building (photo 13) includes 4 modern windows and is completely covered with cedar shakes siding. The first floor section includes 2 modern single hung windows with 12 panes each, and the kitchen section has one narrow vertical fixed window with 2 panes. The upper half story section includes 1 modern single hung window with 12 panes.
The rear (east) side of the building (photo 14) includes 4 modern windows, 1 door and is completely covered with cedar shakes siding. The 6’ x 11’ kitchen extension on the northeast side was enclosed from an original section of the dog-trot in the 1920s. The 2 windows on the kitchen extension are modern single hung windows with 6 panes each. The modern door on the southeast side is solid wood with 6 window panes along with a modern screen door. The 2 modern windows on the southeast side are single hung with 6 panes each. A 12’ x 12’ exterior wood porch with railings and a staircase leading to the ground level was built in 2014 (photo 15).
The south side of the building (photo 16) includes 3 modern windows and is completely covered with cedar shakes siding. The first floor section includes 2 modern single hung windows with 12 panes each, and the upper half story section includes 1 modern single hung window with 12 panes. Wood diamond hole lattice panels at the ground level provide airflow and an entranceway to underneath the structure. Around 1955, approximately an eight-foot section of the south side of the Nathan Cobb Cottage was removed most likely due to wood rot.
Interior
The living room includes the original fireplace and brick chimney (photo 17). The original bead board wall panels were covered with Pickwick pine wood paneling around the 1950s. The Nathan F. Cobb’s quarter board was originally located on the exterior of the south wall, and was relocated inside and hung on the south side wall of the living room (photo 18) around 1955. The heart pine flooring is original and was salvaged from the ship’s sole.
The dining room includes a small closet (photo 19) and the original wood staircase that leads to the loft on the upper half story. The south side wall features the original exposed bricks from the back of the original fireplace. The heart pine flooring is original and was salvaged from the ship’s sole. The bathroom (photo 20) was added on to the dining room in 1955 and was upgraded with a modern shower, toilet and sink in 2014.
The 6’ x 11’ kitchen (photo 21) was enclosed from an original section of the dog-trot in the 1920s and was upgraded with a modern sink, wood pine flooring and appliances in 2014.
The loft on the upper half story (photo 22) includes wood stair banisters and a pony wall with a pine base section and bamboo railings and overlooks the living room (photo 23). The floor boards of the loft once spanned the length of the structure and provided space for two bedrooms. The section over the living room was removed in 1955 allowing for a vaulted ceiling. The entire ceiling features original cypress wood boards (photo 24).
Alterations
The Nathan Cobb Cottage has undergone several alterations during its more than 120 years of existence. The humidity of the Florida summers coupled with the use of natural untreated wood salvaged from a shipwreck eventually caused wood rot in the south section of the cottage structure, its wood plank front porch and ship balustrade, dog-trot and outer kitchen. As a result, an eight-foot section of the cottage structure, wood plank front porch and ship balustrade, most of the dog-trot and the outer kitchen had to be removed. The removal of these wood rot damaged sections most likely saved the cottage from complete ruination and eventual demolition. The original windows were enlarged and modern single hung windows were installed. The original cottage had no kitchen or bathroom (which was common throughout Florida and most of the United States in the 1880s with these types of structures), so when
The Story of the Nathan Cobb Cottage Randy Jaye
technology improved the owners obviously upgraded the structure to provide modern conveniences and improve their quality of life.
Other changes include the installation of Pickwick pine paneling over the original bead board interior wall covering, the installation of a modern roof and the removal of the two original dormer windows, the covering of the roughhewn exterior facing railroad ties with cedar shakes shingles, the brick front porch replacement, the rear wood deck addition, and the removal of the floor boards in the upper half story section above the living room which gave the cottage a vaulted ceiling.
SUMMARY of HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Nathan Cobb Cottage is historically significant as an excellent example of a locally built vernacular-style home using salvaged materials and freight from a wooden schooner ship wreck. The period of significance extends from 1897-1920, which corresponds to the time when wooden schooners were still being built and in common use. The house was constructed in a similar style of several of the area’s historic summer log homes. The most notable is the Talahloko house (photo 25), which was built in 1886 and is one of the last remaining structures in Florida that was entirely built using palmetto logs.14 It is located at 19 Orchard Lane and was added to the National Register of Historic Places [88001716] on July 13, 1989, as a site significant for exploration/settlement and architecture. Another of the area’s historically significant summer log homes is Trapper’s Lodge (photo 26), which was built in 1876 as a single log cabin by John Anderson, an early European pioneer of the area, plantation owner and codeveloper of the Ormond Hotel. The Trapper’s Lodge name was given to the log structure by locals who often seen the carcasses of deer hanging around the property. Anderson originally used the structure as a hunting camp and later as his residence until his death in 1911. In the late 1800s, a second log cabin was built next to it that was connected by a dog-trot breezeway. In the twentieth century, it had a second floor built over both of the log cabins. It is now a completely enclosed two-story house that contains its original log walls on its first floor level. It is located at 65 Orchard Lane.15
14 City Vicinity History: Historic Landmarks. Located at: Ormond Beach Historical Landmarks records. Ormond Beach Historical Society 15 Ibid.
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The Nathan Cobb Cottage contributes to the sense of time and historical development through its location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling and community association.
ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT
Vernacular refers to architectural designs that reflect local traditions and cultural practices and are typically simpler than what the building methods and technology of their time are capable of constructing. The materials used are typically inexpensive and are commonly indigenous to the local region. Amateurs (not formally educated architects) typically design vernacular structures.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Nathan Cobb Cottage is architecturally significant due to its unique frame vernacular styling, which relates to many of its building materials that were salvaged from a wood schooner shipwreck and its miscellaneous wood freight. The ingenuity of a local builder named William Fagen to use roughhewn railroad ties attached together in a vertical position for outer walls, wood plank boards from the ship’s sole for flooring, pieces of the ship balustrade to serve as porch railings, cypress boards to cover the ceiling and the repurposing of a flight of wood stairs from the ship to use as the cottage’s staircase to the upper half story all reflect a very uncommon frame vernacular style.
CONCLUSION
It is unlikely that such a building will ever be constructed again since wood schooners have not been built for 100 years, and almost all have been decommissioned and salvaged decades ago, which obviously means that the types of materials that were used in the Nathan Cobb Cottage are no longer available.
