In 1736, Timothy Hawley sold land along Main Street in Farmington to Ezekiel Tompson. A house may already have been standing on the property and then been expanded into its present form by Thompson, or he may have built the house himself. Whichever the case, the house was in existence by 1783, when it was inherited by Ezekiel‘s son, Isaiah Thompson, who sold it that same year to Deacon Samuel Richards, who had served as a captain in the Revolutionary War and was the first postmaster of Farmington. In Farmington, Connecticut, the Village of Beautiful Homes (1906), it is said that the house was built by Richards in 1792 and this has been the date traditionally given for its construction. The house was next owned by Abner Bidwell, a merchant involved in the construction of the Farmington Canal.
