8. Tower at Crelthome

Tour the Villages
West Yarmouth

Tower at Crelthome

This house on South Sea Avenue is on or near the site of the earliest house in West Yarmouth. The land was owned by many generations of the Crowell family and Captain Zadock Crowell built this house around 1832. His grandson, Joshua Freeman Crowell, lived here at the end of the 19th century with his wife, Florence. Crowell was an author, poet and composer and his wife was a talented singer and active in the women's suffrage movement (reportedly being the first woman in Yarmouth to vote.) The Crowells were patrons of the arts and hosted cultural parties at their home. Here, the Crowells and some spirited friends pose on the tower and roof of the home they called "Creltholme." Although the house still stands, the turret and widow's walk were destroyed in a hurricane early in the 20th century.