Hi All,
We get a lot of questions regarding the history of certain houses, however, actual research can take a lot of time and also be very expensive, but I am attempting to start going through the village to start with starting up at The Buck Hollow Road and identifying who lived in the houses there from an 1857 Map at that time:
Donna Meunier has done quite a bit of research on Farrar Pottery and had found several locations in town where pottery was manufactured. Where the Buck Hollow Road intersects with Route 104, it appears that in the vicinity of where Ivan & Marie Paul Langlier live, there was a pottery place which E. Farrar (I believe this may have been Eben Farrar who was born in 1800) and S. H. Farrar (I believe this was Stephen Farrar who drowned in June, 1857 when the steamship "Montrealer" burned and many lives were lost on the St. Lawrence River) were probably associated with. It also appears there may have been a couple of houses between The Buck Hollow Road and The Huntville Road also, maybe in the vicinity of the car wash that are no longer there. Also looks like a Congregational Church at the end of the Huntville Road. J. Bowdish rings a bell, because there was a Bowdish Cemetery out in the pasture somewhere around Mark Rainvilles place, although I am not sure exactly where, but suspect it would have been on a knoll. The Professor J. Upham place, I am guessing is probably Sam Hudson's house.
The above photo shows Rev. S. L. Elliott's place which I believe is most likely Colleen Steen's house right next to the Baptist Building. Across the way of course is the Old New Hampton Institute and Boarding House. When researched a while back, J. D. Farnsworth is shown to have owned all the land from the big house once owned by Jim Brown way over to The Huntville Road. We did find some records that showed that the land was sold Cyrus Leach when he built his house, as well as several other houses along the way over the years. Mike Marshall, who's father worked for the Farnsworths showed me where there had been a barn and house off the Fireman's Pond Road. He showed me where he remembered the barn being, which was just about where Jim & Donna Varrichione lived before they moved recently. The Town House was definitely just above The A. W. Rich Funeral Home and I suspect that F. H. Wells Store is the building that used to be Howards Store just North of what is now The Fairfax Historical Society. Mrs. Dunbar's Hotel is a place that burned and where The Old St. Luke's Rectory used to be on the North Corner of Hunt Street and Main Street.
Now, the things I am saying are simply what I perceive as being and should not be construed as fact. I welcome any other opinions, but thought this might be some kind of a start to identifying some of the old Historical Places here in Fairfax.
Also, you might want to keep in mind that the 1857 map sometimes has what appears to be some discrepancies as to which side of the road a building may have been along with exact distances which apparently were not to any particular scale.
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