Built around 1660, the Thomas Lee House in Niantic is one of Connecticut’s oldest wood frame post-Medieval English houses. The original structure consisted of a single-room ground floor with a chamber above. This was expanded, after 1700, with the addition of a West Parlor and Chamber. The lean-to, which makes the house a saltbox, was added about 1765. The Lee family owned the house for two hundred years, until it was sold to a local farmer who used it as a barn and chicken coop. The farmer planned to tear the house down, but in 1914, it was saved by the East Lyme Historical Society, with help from the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of Colonial Dames, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and Lee family descendants. The house was restored under the direction of Norman Morrison Isham, an architectural historian and author of Early Connecticut Houses (1900). It opened to the public in 1915 as a historic house museum, operated by the East Lyme Historical Society.
How can I find out if I am a descendent of Thomas Lee? I do not have many family members left and they do not know any of our family history. Thank You!
I would suggest using footnote.org and or contacting the town of Lyme for property records /deeds. There is a lot of work to be done…start with footnote.org
I was told I was related to Thomas Lee. My great grandmother was Lucy Amelia Lee. She married Thomas Clarkson Wilberforce Glenn around mid 1870’s I believe.Any relatives?
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Does anyone have any information on the old building on Roxbury Rd. that is on the state farm property?
Great to see that there were preservation-minded people in 1900… thanks for keeping this treasure in tact!
Thomas (Mr. Justice Lee) Lee III was my 7th great grand father…
My husband’s ggggg-grandmother was the bride at Bride Brook. Long ago.