William Barton House (1765)

The house at 25 Barton Hill Street in East Hampton was built circa 1765. The gambrel-roofed house has three dormer windows that were added in the nineteenth century. It is not known who built the house, but in 1807 the property was acquired by William Barton (1762-1849), who was the father of bell manufacturing in East Hampton (which became known as Belltown, U.S.A.). The Bevin Brothers, who were apprentices in Barton’s shop, later started their own bell factory in town, which is still in business today. The house remained in the Barton family until 1953. As related in Historic Towns of the Connecticut River Valley (1906), by George S. Roberts:

The prosperity and industrial spirit of East Hampton was very largely due to William Barton, who was born in Windsor in 1762. William Barton, the father, was a captain in Colonel Flower’s Regiment of Artillery Artificers, in the Revolution and his son William was with him as assistant. He learned his trade from his father, who was armorer in Springfield in the Revolutionary War. At the close of the war, William returned to Wintonbury, in Windsor, and made pistols and other arms. In 1790, he went to New York and started the manufacture of articles made of brass, especially andirons. He remained there for eighteen years and in 1808, went to East Hampton where he made hand bells and sleigh bells. William Barton was a man of broad mind, who loved his fellow man. He was never so happy as when benefiting others and improving the condition of the community in which he lived and worked. He taught his trade to others and it was not long before East Hampton became a thriving and prosperous community. In 1826, Mr. Barton went to Cicero, New York, where his happy influence was strongly felt. In 1846, he returned to his old home in East Hampton to spend the remaining years of his life, surrounded by his children and the friends and neighbors who honored and loved him. His death occurred, after a long life of usefulness, in 1849.