Farrar-Mansur House

The apparent uniformity of the two principal facades of this tavern conceals a complex building history. It began as a residence—a center-chimney Cape facing east onto what is now VT 100—for sawmill owner Oliver Farrar. To this he added a two-story, hipped-roof I-house, two bays deep by five bays long with twin rear chimneys, to use as a tavern facing the Weston common. Both phases have similar transomed doors framed by pilasters that carry molded entablatures. Ultimately, the rear wing was elevated to two stories to match the front. The front wing retains its original layout, including a parlor and a tavern room downstairs that fl hall with a dog-leg staircase. This leads to a typical second-floor ballroom that fills the entire floor and was originally equipped with a folding partition for conversion into smaller spaces, each with its own fireplace.

The house passed from the Farrar family to the Mansurs in 1857, who donated it to the Weston Community Club (owners of the adjacent Playhouse) in 1932 for use as a museum. In the 1930s it underwent a community-supported restoration, ultimately receiving new clapboarding and exterior moldings, murals in the elaborately detailed parlor, rustic exposed beams in the tavern room, as well as furnishings and accessories from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It remains important to the state not only as a preserved tavern but also as an early example of community (as opposed to individual) sponsorship of preservation and the establishment of a house museum.