Abel Chittenden House (1804)

The house at 1 Broad Street in Guilford was built in 1804 by architect-builder Abraham Coan for Abel Chittenden (1779-1816) on land that had been in the Chittenden family since 1639. After Abel’s death, his widow was in financial straits. She sold the house to Danforth Nettleton, who built the property’s unusual fence. In 1851, Abel’s son, Simon Baldwin Chittenden, returned to Guilford from New York, where he had made a fortune in the dry goods business. He bought back the old family homelot and developed the property into a landscaped summer estate. Behind the house he built a stone water tower, called Cranbrook Tower. Chittenden also added a Queen Anne-style front porch to the house, which was later removed, and a rear wing for a ballroom. He named the house at 1 Broad Street “Carnbrook,” after the place in England from which his ancestor, William Chittenden, had emigrated. He also purchased the house next door, at 29 Broad Street, which he named “Mapleside.” The house at 1 Broad Street remained in the Chiitenden family until 1968.