The Gillises Of South Chatham Preserve A Family Legacy

SOUTH CHATHAM – A century ago, John Gillis, a car dealer from Boston, bought about 10 acres of wooded land overlooking Mill Creek from Charles Bassett. In the late 1920s, Gillis built a cottage on a high, flat portion of the land overlooking the creek and Nantucket Sound beyond.

 The simple craftsman-style house was ordered from the Sears Roebuck catalog, one of tens of thousands the retail giant sold between 1908 and 1942. A 1936 subdivision plan of the property shows the cottage as the only house on any of the nine lots.

 The land became an enclave for the Gillis family, and today there are homes on most of the lots, all owned by family members, according to Christina Gillis Stevens, John Gillis’ granddaughter.

 But the original cottage has remained a focal point. Late last year that original cottage — still a seasonal home used by family members — was picked up and moved across Gillis Road and is being renovated into a year-round home by Steven’s brother, Tom Gillis. Her sister Kate is building a new house on the cottage’s original lot with its panoramic view of the creek and sound.

 “Nobody wanted to part with it,” Stevens said of the 790-square-foot cottage. “It was so important to everybody.”

 Despite its age and the fact that it came from a catalog, the house was solid and its move straightforward, said builder Jesse Carlton. The chimney had to be removed and extensive bracing applied in order for Sylvester building Movers of Falmouth to relocate it over the neighborhood’s unpaved roads. Some elements of the building containing rot had to be replaced, Carlton said.

 “But the initial beam structure was good, strong,” he said.

 The move required approval by the historical commission — a small addition will be added to the building — and the zoning board of appeals because the lot is nonconforming. But town officials were supportive and grateful that the cottage was being preserved, said Stevens. The town’s historic inventory form on the building calls is “an early, intact example of cottage development in South Chatham.”

 The cottage and property have a colorful history. According to Stevens, family lore has it that during Prohibition, rumrunners would store their illicit goods in the seasonally-occupied cottage over the winter. It would all be cleared out when summer came round, and anything left would be buried in garbage pits. 

 In 1954 one of John Gillis’ three sons built the first year-round house on the property. More went up over the years, and now a fifth generation of Gillises occupy some of the homes. Over the decades, they all stayed at the cottage at one time or another.

 “It was a classic Cape Cod summer cottage,” Stevens said, with no heat or modern conveniences. “We thought it was the best thing!”