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Brief History of the King Caesar House
The house stands as a fine example of Federal period architecture, built with careful attention to detail and characteristic of skilled ships’ carpenters such as Ezra Weston employed. The front rooms, both upstairs and downstairs, remain practically unchanged from the original construction of 1808. The house currently displays a fine variety of artifacts from the Federal period. Especially notable are superb wallpapers in the two front parlors, which were imported from France for this house. These rare scenic papers attributed to DuFour were restored by a team of experts from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Opposite the house, the massive stone wharf at which the Weston ships were once rigged and fitted reaches out into Duxbury Bay. Nearby were located the spar-soak and shipyard establishment of the Westons on either side of the Bluefish River inlet. The wharf, formerly the focus of a bustling industry, is now a landscaped park named for Dr. Henry C. Bumpus, a noted scientist and president of Tufts College, who lived in the house from 1937-1945. The house was lived in by Weston descendants until 1886. At that point it was purchased by Frederick B. Knapp and became part of the campus of the Powder Point School for Boys. In the 20th century, the house was owned by a succession of Duxbury families until 1965 when it was purchased by the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society. |
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The
King Caesar House was built in 1808 for Ezra Weston, II (1772-1842, shown
left c. 1796) and his wife, Jerusha Bradford Weston. Weston, like his father,
was known as “King Caesar” for his worldwide preeminence in shipbuilding and
shipping during the early 19th century. Lloyd’s of London recognized
him as the largest shipowner in America, and this judgment was seconded by
Daniel Webster in a speech in 1841. From this house, King Caesar presided over
an empire which encompassed a fleet of about 75 merchant ships, a ten acre
shipyard, a farm, and a large work force of sailors, carpenters and laborers.