Parmelee Hill Road, south side

The Ezra Camp House is located above the south side of Parmelee Road, in a rural, residential neighborhood. The house is surrounded by woodland and open fields with some modern residential development occurring to the east and west of the lot.

• Record ID: 159
• Address: Parmelee Hill Road, south side
• Current Owner: Johnson, Lynell and Judi
• Name of Building:
• Historic Name: Ezra Camp House
• Download PDF of Original Record

Notable Features

The 5-bay facade displays a six-panelled facade entrance door a five-paned overlight and covered by a free-standing pedimented gable doorhead. Twelve-over-twelve sash are featured throughout the main block. A 1 1/2 story ell has been added to the southern elevation .

Historical or Architectural Importance

This 2 1/2 story, Georgian style house was erected ca. 1815 by Ezra Camp. The asphalt-shingled, ridge-to-street, gable roof displays twin interior end chimneys of brick.
The asbestos-sided, post-and-beam frame is supported by a sandstone foundation.
Ezra Camp (1770-1817), son of Elah and Prudence Camp, erected this house, commonly known as the “Home Farm” ca. 1815. Camp, a farmer, took his oath of freedom in 1796. Upon his death in 1817, Camp’s probate inventory stated he owned the Fowler dwelling house (no longer extant) and the New House with a barn and cowhouse. Camp willed the Fowler homelot and house to his wife Anna, and the rest of his property to be divided amongst his children~ Ozias, Lyman, Oran, Selima, Phebe and Almira. Ozias, the administrator of his father’s estate, sold the New House, also known as the Home Farm, to Guernsey Bates in 1818. Bates owned the property for a short while before selling it to Elijah Coe in 1820. Coe (1757-1833), the son of Abel and Prudence (Rossiter) Coe, continued to farm the land. In 1834 the Estate of Elijah Coe sold the house to Jeremiah Bailey. Bailey (1792-1878), a native of Haddam was the son of Eliakim and Esther (Brainerd) Bailey. A farmer, Bailey married Maria Nettleton (1795-1873), and their son, James E. Bailey, built the farmhouse across the street (see James E. Bailey House). According to “The Century of Change”, Jeremiah and Henry Bailey operated a spinning wheel and repair shop along Malt Brook in the southern portion of town. In 1871 Jeremiah sold the homestead to his daughter, Elizabeth Twitchell (0. lC33 ). Elizabeth married a carriagemaker, George H. Twitchell (1832-1868) of Winsor, New York, in 1856. Twitchell, a soldier in the Civil War, died of “the effects of the hardships of the service” (Beers: p. 277). The “Home Farm” was sold out of the Bailey/Twitchell family in 1911.
Historically, the Ezra Camp House is significant for its association with the Camp, Coe and Bailey families. Architecturally it is significant as one of Durham’s best examples of a rural Georgian farmhouse.