52 Chandler Avenue (#37 The Hartigan House -1854)

This brick and wooden home was built in approximately 1854 by the Hartigans, whose descendants occupied it until 1951. John Hartigan, a town Water Commissioner and operator of a livery stable run from the house and barn, lived here for all of his 93 years. He never married, but had a live-in housekeeper who became a local legend by walking every Sunday to St. Michael's Cathedral in Springfield for Mass. Extensive remodeling has taken place in recent years including the additions of a living room, a master bedroom and a screened porch. The barn on the property has been converted into a summer house. The original path connecting the riverfront settlement of old Long Meddowe was the main road into town and went diagonally across this land. Later the whole of Chandler Avenue, named for local entrepreneur, Dimond Chandler, was a bustling commercial street. Along it were two button factories, a spectacle shop, an inn, blacksmith shop, and livery stable. The huge stone upon which the blacksmith plied his trade, once located on this property, now sits in the garden at the Storrs House.