The Charles R. Cook House, ca. 1820

640 Main Street
The Charles R. Cook House, ca. 1820

This home is a fine example of the Federal style of architecture which was popular 1775-1830 and is a dominant period style in Hingham homes. With its symmetrical facade including five six over six sash windows on the second floor, a center entrance and a hip roof, the original builder and owner of this 1820 home is unknown. Charles R. Cook (1822-1902), a blacksmith from Canton, NY, was associated with this house based on an 1857 map. He maintained a separate shop for his business on this property. In 1858, a Hingham Journal gossip columnist, Evesdropper, reports, “Mr. Cook has been adding an ell to his house which makes a convenient tenement for a small family.” The columnist goes on to describe Cook as a promising young man “a capital man to live near” with “mechanical skills and a neighborly spirit”. When he retired as a blacksmith, he auctioned off his shop and his tools. Cook served as a Hingham Constable for over twenty years starting in 1873. The home remained in his family until 1920. Frank Vining Smith and his wife, Nella, owned this house from 1927 to 1936. Smith was a nationally known maritime painter who concentrated on painting clipper ships. He studied at the Boston Museum School under Frank Benson and Edward Tarbell. In a 2010 renovation of this house, owners Frank and Barbara Hanrahan, found a Frank Vining Smith mural of a South Sea island hidden under paneling in a three season porch. The Hanrahans preserved the work by working with Oliver Brothers in Boston to remove, restore and then reinstall the mural on the same back porch wall. They later donated it to the Hingham Historical Society, and it can be seen today in the Kelly Gallery at the Heritage Museum. The current owners moved to this home in early November 2022 – and still managed to host Thanksgiving dinner.