Joel Clemons House (1755)

The house at 1062 Bantam Road, in Bantam section of Litchfield, was built by Joel Clemons c. 1755-1756, shortly after he acquired the land from his father John. Joel married Sarah Pettibone in 1757. Aaron Bradley and his son-in-law, Henry Wadsworth, proprietors of the Bradley Tavern, owned the house in the 1820s. James K. Wallace and his wife, Abigail Kilbourn Wallace, bought the property in 1826. Their son, Dr. James K. Wallace, practiced medicine in the house. The Wallace family raised the house from being a one-and-a-half story cape to a full two stories. The house’s ell was once the parsonage of the Baptist Church and was moved from its original site on Cathole Road. A different door has been installed since 1987, when a photograph of the house was taken for the Historical and Architectural Resources Survey of Litchfield, Connecticut: The Bantam/Milton Area (1987). In recent years the house was home to Gilyard’s Outfitters, Ltd.