170 Main Street

This house, part of a cluster of small residences, stands close to the edge of Durham’s Main Street, just north of the town’s commercial center.

Notable Features

This is a small cottage more characteristic of northern New England than of central Connecticut.

Historical or Architectural Importance

This l 1/2 story three bay house stands on a sandstone block foundation. Its main entry is asymetrically placed on the facade and is flanked by two 2x2s with shutters. Two 2×2 windows are asymetrically placed on each gable end, with a full size 6×6 window in each gable peak. The rear addition, which was probably built early in this century, is constructed in a style consonant with the main structure. This house was built by Henry W. Bailey in the 1850s on land that he had inherited from his father, the blacksmith Jabez Bailey. As Bailey is known to have lived elsewhere in town, it is probably that he built this house as a rental property which it remained through most of its existence. In 1862, Bailey sold the house to Daniel Southmayd, who owned the large farmstead to the east (the fannhouse of which still stands at the corner of Haddam Quarter Road and Oak Terrace). Southmayd, like subsequent owners Smith Crowell and Nehemiah Burr, undoubtedly rented the property. In 1893, Nehemiah Burr sold the property to John W. Clark, a 27 year old farmer, but got it back when Clark defaulted on his mortgage. In 1900, the property was sold to Eugene Gladwin, a 24 year old clerk from Killingworth, who in turn sold it in 1916 to Sarrn.1el B. Southmayd. Southmayd left it in his will to his son, Charles T. Southmayd of New Haven. On his death in 1956, the property was sold to
Sammy Garigliano, who sold it to its present owner in 1957. This structure is typical of nineteenth-century rental housing in D.urham, especially the kind of rental housing constructed for immigrants and farm laborers.