Located at 13 Great Neck Road, the Lieutenant Prince Burgess House, built in the 1600s, is considered to be the oldest house in Wareham. Did you know that the Burgess family purchased the house in 1709, and it remained in the family for 259 years? The house was built in several sections beginning with a simple kitchen and dining room. A large parlor was added in which Prince Burgess was born in 1749. Over the years, ten more rooms were added.

Prince Burgess was a Lieutenant in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was noted for serving in the Battle of Rhode Island and was also a minute man. Burgess married Mercy Nye from Sandwich in 1769. He remained active in the community and died in 1832. Local history records state that Prince’s son Stephen was given one dollar from the town for each elm tree he planted. Along with Samuel Tisdale, hundreds of elm trees were reportedly planted in Agawam (East Wareham). A photograph of the stately home appears in the Wareham Summer of Celebration 2014 historic keepsake calendar.

Around the same time, the Captain Joseph Burgess House, was located further down Great Neck Road and was built by the captain’s great-grandfather during the late eighteenth-century.