As we approach the end of our second month here in Ledyard, we finally have the answers to some of our original questions (and a whole slew of new questions!)
This will be long but well worth the wait, I promise!
First things first: I went and spoke with Andrea down at the historical society. They did not have a file on our home previously, but they did do some research to help us get started. Our home is named after Amos L. Latham (1802-1874), a Ledyard town constable. He was married to Elizabeth Gore, had 7 children, and his parents ( Jonas Latham and Eunice Williams) are actually buried in the small cemetery that is 3 houses down from us!
His Daughter Francis married a man named Moses Standish (possibly of Mayflower Capt. Standish lineage), and Moses purchased this house from his father in law likely in the 1850’s (they were married c1851, so it is likely he purchased the farm from Amos sometime near their wedding, though I do not have proof of that date yet).
ANYWAY. As of right now we do not have much on Amos or Eliza, but I am searching to find where they are buried because I feel like it should be documented with this house. We don’t know who had the house built, or even exactly when; according to the local historians that we have been blessed to work with, homes were built (or recorded as being built) around a major event like a wedding, childbirth, etc. So while tax records have this house as being built in 1780 or 1785 (I’ve seen both), we really don’t know the exact year of construction. There is also rumors that this is one of the homes built by famed builder Thomas Fanning. The Fanning homestead is nearby, we have streets named after Mr. Fanning, and the architecture all looks very similar. All that being said, at least one historian has doubts that this is a Fanning home, and no one has any concrete documentation.
We have made a visit to both the Ledyard town hall and to a local historical home called the Nathan Lester House. We learned a little at town hall about when our neighborhood was subdivided, and got a couple of names to look at as far as a title chain search; but it seems that records pre-1963 are kept in a vault and are not searchable via computer. I was also referred to Groton’s town hall because in the early 1800’s and late 1700’s this area was still a part of Groton.
Just yesterday we were privileged to get a private tour of the Nathan Lester House here in Ledyard, and a little plug for the house and the folks who run it: its absolutely amazing. Its in beautiful shape, the 102 acre grounds are stunning, and its just an all around fabulous experience. If you like historical homes and you are near this little town I highly highly recommend checking this place out.
(Pssst! they are looking for a live-in caretaker as of 8/17/2017)
Before I share with you the results of our trip to the Lester House, I want to share a little random visit that we had here at the house. We were working out front on the pollinator garden and the walkway (giving the house some curb appeal) and a car pulled up with a pair of sweet older ladies in it. They asked if we lived here, and shared that they had lived here back in the 1930’s! They told us about their father adding on the kitchen el, planting the Catalpa trees out back, and about the front porch that he had built and that someone else had removed later when they “restored” the home. We heard rumors of a hidden root cellar, possible underground railroad connections, and about some of the features that we now know are missing from our home. I wish I had gotten their names, but I gave them an open invitation to come back and show us around as they remember, so I’m hoping they take me up on it soon.
Now this brings me back to our visit to the Lester House. Andrea originally drew a (not to scale) map of the Lester House because just from looking at the street view and us comparing notes, she guessed that they were likely the same or very similar layout. We’ve had some questions particularly about the upstairs and its “hacienda” style circular layout (one set of stairs at the front of the house, walking through one bedroom which leads to another and to another, etc. It doesn’t have a natural flow to it, and the upstairs bathroom is actually about a 4 inch step down from the rest of the floor. We felt that was very odd considering a) the age of the house (we obviously know its not original), and b) the fact that its upstairs. You don’t just make up 4 random inches in the middle of the floor/downstairs ceiling! Then you have the case of the missing back staircase. STAIRCASES. Three of them to be exact; one leading down to the cellar, one leading to the second floor, and one leading to the attic. All gone, save for the replacement pull down ladder that now leads to the attic. Very, very odd.
We went to the Lester house prepared with a folder of pictures of our home (I’ll share those here alongside the corresponding pictures of the Lester house so that you can see the difference), and aside from our house being a tiny tiny bit narrower (and we only have the one story el addition compared to the two story caretaker quarters that are elled onto the Lester house), these houses should be IDENTICAL. Or nearly anyway. Here are the differences:
- the staircases. I’m going to start there because for some reason its really bothering me that someone took out such a fundamental part of this home. Who removes staircases?! I mean, really.
- the dining room fireplace. Ours has a brick facade, and beings that its off-centered there’s a good chance that the original two ovens are still under the right hand side bricks (you’ll see in the pictures what I mean)
- the missing fireplace. Ok, we don’t know that this house is actually missing a sixth fireplace, BUT the possibility is that there is a third fireplace upstairs, underneath some of the beadboard in the “hallway”.
- the upstairs layout. This is one of the things that confused me from the first moment that we saw pictures of the house. You walk up the stairs, and if you take a left you reach a bedroom with a back door that leads into another bedroom that has two off-center walk-in closets (one we are assuming was put in for the first bedroom but it is actually inside the second bedroom), then this second room (our kids playroom) leads into a third, slightly smaller room (kids’ library) with another walk in closet, which has ANOTHER door that leads to a very short hallway. You walk into the hallway and you have the bathroom, then a shallow closet, then a quick turn to the left and you are dumped into the front, right bedroom. Oh but there’s more. When you stand in the back doorway to this room and look to the right there is a framed entrance to a sort of catty-corner closet. That has ANOTHER doorway (no door) that leads to the “utility room” where the attic pull-down ladder is (as well as a randomly plumbed in sink, but we won’t go there. Yet.) You’ll get a better idea when you look through the pictures, but I’m guessing by this point you’ll see why I was confused.
At this point we are simply making lists of projects and prioritizing them. Our goal is to “improve” the house as per our lease agreement, while making sure that we are a) keeping the historical significance of the home in mind, and b) doing justice to the house AND the owners (and possibly ourselves in the future if we get the chance to purchase) by carefully planning and thinking long-term. All things considered, we love this house and we are very thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of its history.
I hope you enjoy the pictures of both the Nathan Lester House and our home, the Amos L. Latham House.
*Note: Pictures are not in order right now, I apologize for the confusion. I’m working on getting them straight so that you can better see the comparison, but I wanted to get this post shared quickly
Latham House Revival 