John Johnson House (1750)

Located at 19 Maiden Lane in Durham, the John Johnson House, with its unusually non-symmetrical configuration, was associated with several important local stone carvers. It was built between 1743 and 1750 as a dwelling and stone-carving shop by Thomas Spelman and Noah Lyman. Spelman was a gravestone carver who sold his half of the partnership with Noah Lyman and moved to Granville, Massachusetts in the early 1850s. Noah Lyman sold to Elizabeth Austin in 1761 and she and her husband Jesse sold to John Johnson, Jr. in 1773. Johnson came from a family of stone carvers in Middletown and became a successful farmer in Durham and a deacon of the town’s Congregational church. A brownstone quarry was located on the south side of Maiden Lane, which may have been the source of the stone Johnson carved for the town’s cemeteries. Johnson and his wife Abigail had three unmarried daughters: Rhoda, Eunice, Nabby, Nancy and Almira. Every Sunday, they would walk to church in single file in order of their ages. In 1825, Johnson sold the house to his daughters, for whom Maiden Lane was named.