MORE ABOUT THE REV. JAMES KEITH HOUSE PT.1

I did some more searching on the Keith House in West Bridgewater and hit the jackpot. I found information in of all things a book of epitaphs written by Williams  Latham, including illustrations
of the evolution of the house over its first200 years:

Here is some of what Mr. Latham wrote about the Keith House:


The house was built 1662. It fronted south, was two stories high in front, one story high back side, posts, sixteen feet high, fifteen feet wide in front, thirty.four feet deep, with front entry, five feet wide; chamber stairs and chimney back of front door, in the southeast corner of the house, one front room, about ten by twelve, with a bed-room back of that, and a kitchen, with pantry, back of bed.room and chimney. In the second story was an entry, a front room, and a bed-room corresponding to the rooms below. No cellar under this part of the house. 

In 1678, the house was enlarged by an addition of eighteen by thirty.four feet, to the east side of the house; two stories high in front one story high back side, making one large front room, eighteen by eighteen feet, with a bed.room, back stairs, and an enlargement of the kitchen, in the back part. The rooms in the second story corespond.ing to the front room and bed.room belov;. The back part of the second story of the old and new part of the house remaining unfinished. A cellar under a portion of this new part, with a stone drain across the road to the Town river.

The house remained in this condition, without material alteration for 159 years, from 1678 down to 1837, when Thomas Pratt, father of said George M. Pratt, cut off about fourteen feet of the north side of the house, so as to leave the north side of the same height as the front side of the house, thereby making the south. roof thirteen and one.half feet long, and the north roof only twelve feet long; building a new chimney in the place of the old one, then taken down, but much smaller; and leaving the rooms in the front and middle parts of the house as they were before this amputation. The brick in this old.chimney were much larger than modern brick, and were laid in clay. The shingles upon the walls were taken off, and clapbiards put on in place thereof. This house now (1882) being a two story house, thirty.two feet front, and twenty feet back„with a porch annexed to the back side. The windows upon the three sides of the house being the same ever since the memory of man, except such as were cut off as aforesaid, and except square glass in place of the old diamond glass and bull.s eyes.
The annex or addition of eighteen by thirty.four feet, made in 1678, was quite fully developed and apparent on a personal examination of the inside of the house, a few years ago, by the writer; and the frame.work, timber, doors, materials, and inside construction of lite house exhibit strong marks of antiquity. pp-239-240

Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts: Illustrated with Plans and Views  Henry T.Pratt, Publisher, Bridgewater, Mass. 1882

There is more information about the court case involving Bridgewater and West Bridgewater, as well as about the ownership of the house. I'll discuss that in Part 2

To be continued...