6231 Highway 201: The Phineas Oakes House

Architecture Style: Modified Vernacular

Built: c. 1803

The Oakes family were loyalists from Long Island, New York, who came to Digby right after the Revolution.  Phineas, who probably built this house, was married to Rachel Lovett, of the prominent Lovett family in Annapolis. When he moved to New Albany, his brother Jesse took the 500-acre grant, purchased from planter Moses Banks. Then in  1816, there was a severe drought and crops failed; perhaps that is why Jesse gave up the farm in 1817. It was kept in the family when his brother-in-law, Thomas Lovett,  took the farm. Thomas, however, could not or would not keep the farm, and it went to Thomas Ritchie, another prominent Annapolis name.

Even after the Starratt family had owned the farm for two generations, the 1881 census still called it “The Oakes residence.” Joseph and Rebecca [Bent] Starratt had purchased land in Paradise on the Post Road from Jesse Bent, but we find Joseph living here with his second wife, Susan Marshall, and “desirous of conveying the Homestead farm to George”,  Joseph and Rebecca’s son, so they took certain steps. George’s brother John Ferguson, off in California, sent a “quit claim”.  The new deed gave Susan the west half of the house, milk and wood for her needs, and 8 pounds of sheared wool. George and his wife, Emily [Dugwell], farmed here until the property was sold to Murray and Bertha Elliott. After it was divided between the Elliott sons, Rufus sold to a Danish farmer, John Christensen, and then for many years, it was the home of Gerald and Ethelwyn Gaul.

John Tufts was a teacher at Middleton Regional High School, and Cheryl Tufts a head nurse. They bought the property from Ethelwyn in 1994, and created a truly spectacular multi-level garden, with pond, flowerbeds, paths and benches, that seemed to go on forever on the hillside. During a family wedding, their large pond was stunning with its island of floating flowers! They researched and loved the home.

The Tufts reported that the original home had no front gable; its angles are more classical than the steep Victorian Gothic, and one suspects the Ritchies or Starratts added it.