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Join us for a very special Evening Reception to celebrate
The Bicentennial of the King Caesar House!
The King
Caesar Estate 200 years ago as depicted in our new mini-documentary "In the Days
of King Caesar: The Weston Estate on Powder Point." Image by Bryan Felty
The King
Caesar House, owned and operated by the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society as
a museum, is celebrating its bicentennial this year. The house on Powder Point
belonged to Ezra Weston II (1772-1842), known as “King Caesar” due to his
success in shipbuilding and mercantile trade. Weston owned the leading shipping
firm on the South Shore and one of the largest in New England. 200 years ago,
his home was the center of Duxbury’s largest industry.
The Society has
several projects in the works to mark the bicentennial of one of Duxbury’s most
historic houses.
On August 22, 2009, from 7-9 p.m., the Society will host an evening reception
celebrating the 200th birthday of the King Caesar House. The event
will be held on scenic Bumpus Park, once King Caesar’s wharf. Tickets are $35
per person and may be obtained by contacting the Society at 781-934-6106. The
reception will feature music, food by Crazy Chefs Catering, and a silent
auction.
A key component of the evening will be the debut of a new mini-documentary
titled, “In the Days of
 King
Caesar: The Weston Estate on Powder Point.” The video will be screened for the
first time in the King Caesar House on August 22 during the reception. Produced
by Duxbury resident Bryan Felty of Good Bones Productions, the short video is a
computer animated simulation depicting the evolution of the Weston Estate in the
18th and early 19th centuries. Included in the “virtual
tour” are the first Weston shipyard, the Eliphas Weston House, the Ezra Weston I
House, the wharf with its commercial buildings, the Ropewalk and the King Caesar
House, as originally built and as modified c. 1840. Felty also produced the
recreation of Duxbury’s World War I Memorial, currently under re-construction,
that was shown at this year’s Town Meeting.
Thanks to an 1840s architectural plan book assembled by Alden Bradford Weston
(King Caesar’s son who came to inherit the King Caesar House), all the data
necessary for a 3-D recreation of the estate was already documented. According
to Patrick Browne, Executive Director of the Society, “We’ve long wanted to use
the architectural drawings to create a simulation of the property, but the
technology has only recently become readily accessible. Also, without Bryan’s
involvement, this simply would have been impossible.”
 Viewers
of the video may be surprised to learn that Bumpus Park once contained five
large wharf buildings, including a counting house, a sail loft and warehouses.
The Ropewalk, where the Westons manufactured most of the cordage for Duxbury’s
shipyards, has, according to tour guides at the King Caesar House, always been a
difficult structure for visitors to imagine. It was 1,000 feet long, stretching
from King Caesar Road to Powder Point Avenue. The video provides an accurate
sense of the tremendous size of the industrial building.
Those with
questions about the video project or the evening reception on August 22 may
contact the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society at 781-934-6106
[All of
the above computer generated images are from the new mini-documentary In the
Days of King Caesar: The Weston Estate on Powder Point, by Bryan Felty, Good
Bones Productions]
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