No. 5156 Painting of the Ebenezer Clap House on face of a brick.
Edward A. Huebener, a former Board member of the Dorchester Historical Society, was a collector of materials relating to Dorchester history including a very large collection of graphic materials, including prints and photographs, now owned by the Society. His very own contribution to this group of materials was the idea of taking a brick from a house that had been demolished and asking a local illustrator to paint a picture of the house upon the brick. The painted bricks may be viewed at the Dorchester Historical Society.
The Ebenezer Clap House was located on Willow Court, not far from the South Bay. A portion of Willow Court was renamed Enterprise Street, leading from Boston Street to a curve in the road. A small piece of Willow Court remains as a connector from the South Bay shopping plaza to the bend in Enterprise Street.
The drawing below, from the collection of the Dorchester Historical Society, is certainly the model for the brick painting. The drawing was adapted from an illustration that appeared in the Memorial History of Boston.
The notes on the drawing clearly repeat the information found in the Memorial History. It is puzzling, therefore, why the painter of the brick called this house the Roger Clap House on the face of the brick. Roger Clap died in 1691 and could not have owned this house.
No. 2026 drawing of Ebenezer Clap House
No. 5353 House on Willow Court from The Memorial History of Boston.
The caption to the illustration in the Memorial History is simply: House on Willow Court.
This house was raised May 15, 1750. It was built by Ebenezer Clapp (father of Colonel Ebenezer Clapp). During the early part of the Revolutionary struggle, soldiers are said to have been quartered in it. The house is now [1880 or 1881] occupied by James T. Howe.
At the time the new house was raised, it was and had long been customary to celebrate such an occasion by the assembling of most of the men of the neighborhood, who after rendering such assistance as was needed in the raising, partook of the entertainment which was sure to follow. I have heard my father say, that after the raising of this house, May 15, 1750, a large collection of people repaired to the house already spoken of, where Ebenezer Clapp then lived, about a third of a mile distant, playing leaf-frog all the way on the road — from The Clapp Memorial. Record of the Clapp Family in America … Ebenezer Clapp, compiler. 9Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1876).
.No. 5371 Detail from 1874 Hopkins Atlas showing house owned by James Howe