Note: The Beecher-Chatfield House is featured on this website solely because I read, at second-hand, that it is an early house with an interesting history. The information I provide about the house below is based on a brief entry in the 1976 book Early Houses of Oxford, supplemented by what I could discover about the house by means of an internet search at the time I originally wrote this post in 2016. The information presented below is not based on a professional evaluation of the property or formal research into its historic character. I have no knowledge of the physical condition of the house, the extent to which it has been altered over the years, or how much of its earliest construction remains. The house is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places, either individually or as part of a larger historic district, and to my knowledge it is not under the authority of a local historic district commission. This website was started as a hobby and I do not represent an agency or organization with authority to make an official judgement about the historic character or status of any property, including the Beecher-Chatfield House.
The house at 136 Chestnut Tree Hill Road Extension in Oxford was built in 1768-1769 by Isaac Beecher (1748-1789). It remained in his family until 1811. John Riggs, Beecher’s son-in-law, next owned the house until the title was transferred to Abijah Chatfield in 1816. The house was owned by members of the Chatfield family until 1908. The house has since had many occupants. In the 1940s it was the home of photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston (1885-1971), who set up his studio in the barn. Johnston was a glamour photographer famed for his portraits of Ziegfeld Follies showgirls.
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