Possibly the oldest continuously occupied residence in North Haven is the Bassett House at 3 Ives Street at Outer Ridge Road, part of property owned by Captain John Bassett from 1695 c. 1714, which had buildings on it when divided by his sons in 1719. The rear section of the western half of the house (a “half-house”) was probably in existence by 1720, by which time it was owned by Captain Bassett’s son, Joseph Bassett. By the time of his death in 1761, Joseph Bassett had expanded the house into a “saltbox” form. His son, Joseph Bassett, Jr., served in the Revolutionary War and was wounded during Tryon’s Raid on New Haven in 1779. He expanded the house by building another half-house on the eastern side. His son, Jacob Bassett (1775-1844), a prominent citizen of North Haven, updated the eastern section in the Federal style, raised the roof to two-and-a-half stories and moved the front entrance to the north gable. The house passed from the Bassett family around the time of the Civil War. Edward E. Minor acquired the house in 1918 and worked with architect C. F. Townsend to restore the house, an early example of a historically accurate restoration.
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