This farmhouse was built c. 1845 on 24 acres for John Williamson. The 24 acres were previously part of Robert Gamble’s 53 acre property that he purchased from Robert McCay.
Williamson sold the property to Edward R. Helmbold in 1849. The property was described in 1851 records as comprised of “a six room frame house with a front porch, a stable, spring water, some woodland, and fields fertilized with guano [bat excrement]” (DCR, December 5, 1851).
The property was sold to George F. Gilbert in 1860, an engraver by trade. It then passed to Thomas Wheeler in 1861, and then to Mary A. Stanbridge in 1888. Paul G. Wright purchased the property in 1913.
A sawmill was established here in 1918 by Horace D. Wright, and operated up until the 1950s. The mill mainly cut native hardwoods for local industrial use. During World War II, the mill cut massive timbers used for mine sweepers, or small warships used for detonating or removing underwater mines.
A devastating fire in 1971 gutted the house causing much of the original architecture to be lost. Several new additions and renovations were added to the house after the fire as well.
This property is a private residence and not open to the public.
Concord Township Historic Resource #60
