This house and the nearly identical Abraham Knowlton house at 16 County Street are among the oldest gambrels in Ipswich. Thomas Dennis, the famous 17th-century joiner, purchased the corner lot in 1685 for his “new dwelling house,” and the property stayed in the family for several generations. He and his wife, Grace, who died in 1686, had three children, Thomas, John, and Elizabeth, who married Ebenezer Hovey. Thomas Jr. died in 1703, and his father died in 1708 at age 68. The property was inherited by the son.
Stylistic evidence suggests that the present house was constructed in the mid-18th Century by John Dennis Sr.’s son, John (1708 -1773). He 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 the earlier house were reused in the basement to support the first-floor joists. The house was later owned by Captain Ignatius Dodge and is commonly called the Dennis-Dodge house.
Thomas Franklin Waters wrote about the history of this lot: “Richard Hubbard owned a goodly two-acre tract bounded by Stony St. (as it was then called), County St., and East St. This, he sold with a house to Ezekiel Rogers, son of Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, Jan. 28, 1674 (Ips. Deeds 3: 343). His daughter, Martha, sold the house and land to Thomas Dennis on May 16, 1685 (Ips. Deeds 5: 133). The deed specified that it was “over against the sd. Dennis’s new dwelling house” on the lot now owned by the Ignatius Dodge heirs (in 1900). A succession of Dennis family members retained this property, John, Nathaniel, and others, and the old house on the corner of County and Summer Streets is still known as the Dennis House.”
Lydia Dodge was the daughter of Nathaniel Dennis and Mary Staniford. Lydia married John Newmarch in 1809. He died three years later, and she then married John Howard Dodge on Nov. 19, 1815, in Ipswich. Their son, Captain Ignatius Dodge (1816 – 1901), inherited the house. He was captain of the ship “July Fourth.” The house remained in the family for years. In the early 1800s, Eunice Hale maintained a school in the building.
A 1927 aerial photo shows 10 County St. with a large shoe shop that was attached to the rear. The rear ell is shown in the 1910 Ipswich map. In the 1884 Ipswich directory, the owner is George W. Spiller, shoe dresser, Farley & Daniels, 28 Summer St., corner of County Street. In the 1896 Ipswich Directory, the house was owned by George Spiller, “retired”.
Restoration photos
Information from the MACRIS site, provided by the Ipswich Historical Commission in 1982:
“This house lot was in the possession of the Dennis family before 1685, when a deed to the abutting lot mentions the “new Dwelling house” of Thomas Dennis on the corner lot (5:133). Stylistic evidence indicates a mid-eighteenth-century date for the present house, the period when John Dennis owned the property. The cellar displays heavily chamfered timbers, probably reused elements from the earlier house. The house is one of the best second-period gambrels in Ipswich. The central hall has never been painted and contains a fine staircase thought to be the work of the Dennis family of craftsmen.
“John Dennis was a Harvard graduate (1730) and served as chaplain at Port St. George and Fort Frederick from 1737 to 1749. He was chosen schoolmaster in Ipswich in 1753. In the early 19th century, Eunice Hale kept a school in the Dennis-Dodge House. The Dodge in the house’s name comes from its mid-19th-century occupant, Capt. Ignatius Dodge, master of the vessel “July Fourth.” The deed to this house contains preservation easements, inserted during its ownership by the Ipswich Heritage Trust.”
Sources:
Historic Ipswich 