‘Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris.
The earliest records of the Weed Street property known as ‘The Enos Weed House’ dated 1752 show that Charles Weed purchased it from James Hait.
It is unclear whether Charles or his son, Enos, Jr., built the house. Enos Weed, Jr. and his wife, Rhoda Silliman Weed had one daughter, Ann, who lived in the house. Mr. Enos Weed died in 1769 and the house continued to be occupied by his family. On January 14, 1773, Reverend Drummond recorded in his “visitation” journal that Dr. Samuel C. Baker was also residing at the home. There is a marriage record dated October 20, 1774 for Dr. Baker and Ms. Rhoda Silliman Weed.
Dr. Baker was enlisted in the Revolutionary War and served from March 7, 1777 to June 1, 1777 and then again from April 2, 1778 to February 9, 1780 (the later date notes that he served as a physician). In 1982, Ms. King of the New Canaan Historical Society suggested that wounded soldiers from the Oct. 28, 1776 Battle of White Plains were treated at the home but further evidence suggests that “from a bill submitted to the Continental Congress, one learns that Timothy Reed was sent to North Castle (Armonk) to bring home the wounded, who were cared for by Dr. Samuel Baker in Reed’s West Road home.” Mr. Reed later submitted bills to the Continental Congress for the caring of the wounded, which included “To Dr. Baker’s bill for attending them and medisens.”
The house was built in 1766 and the barn and loft were built in 1891—likely to replace a barn that was built at the time the house was built. The current barn is built in a style called “English Bank Style”. The oldest barns still found in the state of Connecticut are called the “English Barn,” “side-entry barn,” “eave entry,” or a 30 x 40. They are simple buildings with a rectangular plan, pitched gable roof, and a door or doors located on one or both of the eave sides of the building based on the grain warehouses of the English colonists’ homeland.
The name “30 by 40” originates from its size (in feet), which was large enough for 1 family and could service about 100 acres. The multi-purpose use of the English barn is reflected by the building’s construction in three distinct bays – one for each use. The middle bay was used for threshing, which is separating the seed from the stalk in wheat and oat by beating the stalks with a flail. The flanking bays would be for animals and hay storage.
The 19th century saw the introduction of a basement under the barn to allow for the easy collection and storage of a winter’s worth of manure from the animals sheltered within the building. The bank barn is characterized by the location of its main floor above grade, either through building into a hillside or by raising the building on a foundation. This innovation, aided by the introduction of windows for light and ventilation, would eventually be joined by the introduction of space to shelter more animals under the main floor of the barn.
The barn at 326 West Road sits on a slope close to Woodridge Drive, a fair distance from the main house. The New Canaan Historical Society has placed a plaque on the house authenticating its construction at about 1766. The construction of the barn was reported in the “New Canaan Nomarch,” a local newspaper of that era. A dormer was removed from above the hay-loft doors at some point, and rotten sills were replaced in 1991.
In the early 1960s, John Walter Gardner purchased the property. Mr. Gardner was born in East Orange, N.J. on Oct. 19, 1904. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1927. Mr. Gardner attended both Clark University and Harvard for business school. He was employed by the American Can Company for 43 years and headed the industrial relations department and was the Vice President of manufacturing. Mr. Gardner was married to Margaret Napier Gardner, who served as President of the school board and was heavily involved in the local Red Cross Chapter, hosting picnics for the organization on their property. Mr. Gardner was seventy two years old when he died in September 1977. A map (number 1238) was prepared for Ms. Gardner on Oct. 24, 1945. The property abuts land once owned by S. Bayard Colgate (former chairman and president of Colgate-Palmolive Co.) which is now the Watson-Symington Woodlands.
In 1978 Mr. Richard Lane Ahern purchased the property from Ms. Gardner for $171,500.00. Mr. Ahern had been a resident of New Canaan since 1972. He was born in New York City on June 5, 1929. When he was sixteen, his father died and his family moved in with his uncle, an executive with International Paper in Hastings-on-Hudson. Mr. Ahern graduated from Fordham Prep in the Bronx.
He eventually started his own paper business (Ahern International Sales Corporation) and he and his wife, Gail McIntyre Ahern, moved to New Canaan in 1972. Mr. Ahern was a volunteer fireman in town and later served on the Fire Department Commission in 1984, serving as Chairman from 1985 to 1991. Mr. Ahern was passionate about the Old Faithful Antique Fire Engine and held at least one tag sale at the property to support the refurbishing of the 1922 seagrave pumper truck. When Mr. Ahern served as chairman of the fire truck, events included providing free truck rides during the “Christmas Tree Village” at Kiwanis Park in 2001, escorting the Easter Bunny to the annual Easter Egg Hunt in 1992.
On Dec. 1, 1979, Mr. Gilbert Dunham purchased 2.87 acres for $295,000 which included the barn. Mr. Dunham graduated from Columbia University and passed the New York State Bar in 1955. He was a senior VP and director of Johnson & Higgins Inc., one of the largest insurance brokerage firms. Johnson & Higgins Inc. was acquired by Marsh McLennan in 1997. Mr. Dunham and his wife, the former Abby L’Hommedieu, spent a lot of time in France and in 2002 they took advantage of a service offered by the French postal service (La Poste) and had their portraits replicated on stamps which they used to mail their holiday cards. In the 1980s, Ms. Dunham owned a store with friends called Katherine’s Garden.
The current owners purchased the home in December 2017.