Ketchum House

Revolutionary War veteran Aaron Jackson erected the two-story ell of this Flemish bond brick house on what had been a branch of the Crown Point Military Road. Around 1815 Jackson's daughter married Major Barnard Ketchum, born in Sudbury and a Vermont militia veteran of the Battle of Plattsburg in 1814. Upon taking over the farm in 1826, Ketchum constructed an elegant brick addition onto the original house with some of the finest Federal detailing found in Vermont. The entrance frontispiece has hand-carved tapered, fluted Corinthian columns engaged on either side of the door, a leaded fanlight with an eagle at its center, and a Palladian window above that echoes the proportions of the fan-light and sidelights. Over the frontispiece is a marble arch with a keystone inscribed with the Masonic sign, an indication that Ketchum was an active Mason at a time when the society was under public attack and many anti–Masonic Party candidates were elected to the Vermont legislature. The interior is notable for a curved staircase in the entrance hall, probably influenced by Thomas R. Dake's work in Castleton; finely worked hearth pieces and wainscots in the best parlor; and a ballroom/meeting room on the second floor. In addition, the house retains many of its original painted surfaces. Despite its relative sophistication, Ketchum's dwelling remained an isolated farmhouse, until it was recognized in the mid-twentieth century as a well-preserved architectural gem.