The 17th-century home of Thomas Dennis, the famous 17th-century joiner, and his wife, Grace, who died in 1686, is at 7 County Street. They had three children: Thomas, who died young, John, and Elizabeth, who married Ebenezer Hovey.
In 1685, Thomas Dennis purchased the lot at 10 County Street for his “new dwelling house,” and the property stayed in the family for several generations. Stylistic evidence suggests that the present house was constructed in the mid-18th Century by John Dennis Sr.’s son, John, who graduated from Harvard in 1730 and served as chaplain at Port St. George and Fort Frederick from 1737 to 1749. After returning to Ipswich, he became the town’s schoolmaster.
The house has an elegant Jacobean central staircase, and heavily chamfered summer beams from an earlier house were reused in the basement. The home was later owned by Captain Ignatius Dodge and is commonly called the Dennis-Dodge house. This house, and the identical Abraham Knowlton House at 16 County Street, are two of the earliest gambrel-roof houses in Ipswich. Read more and view photos of the Dennis-Dodge House.
Historic Ipswich 