Located on the steepest part of Chestnut Street in Willimantic, the John A. Conant House has a basement at street level. John Ashbel Conant, who had the house built in 1894, was superintendent of the Holland Silk Company. The Holland brothers had built a steam powered mill on Valley Street in 1865 and Conant became their overseer the following year. Holland Silk Co. became a leading manufacturer of dress silk thread and, by the time Conant built his house, he had become the company’s managing director, a position he held until he retired in 1906. Conant was also involved in the temperance movement and at the American Prohibition National Convention of 1884 in Chicago, he was nominated as the Prohibitionists candidate for vice-president.