Halsey House & Garden

Halsey House & Garden

Thomas Halsey Sr. (1592-1678) and his family were among Southampton's earliest English colonists. In the 1630s, he sailed to America from England with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children. By 1657, Thomas Sr. had acquired land between Lake Agawam and South Main Street, where he built a dwelling for his family. The original house erected by Thomas Sr. may have burned down shortly after he died in 1678, as suggested by a heavily charred recycled timber recently identified in the existing frame by researchers. Also, the 1688 will of Thomas Jr. (1626-1688), who inherited the property from his father, indicates another house was built: "unto my wife Mary During the time of her widowhood the one halfe of my new house that I built…" The "new house" referenced in Thomas Jr.'s will was probably built between 1678 and 1688, or ca. 1683. It survives in the oldest parts of the house you see today. Hundreds of years later, this remarkable structure still stands at the Southampton History Museum's Halsey House and Garden.

Captain Isaac Halsey (1660-1757), son of Thomas Jr., owned the property until at least 1746. During his tenure, the house was remodeled around 1730, giving it a more fashionable saltbox shape. It was also rotated from south to east, so the front facade faced South Main Street, as it does today. Captain Isaac was the last Halsey to own the property settled by his grandfather. The house and home lot passed to various owners over the next 200 years, including local merchant Elias Pelletreau Jr. (1757-1831) and publishing magnate Arthur John Peabody (1835-1901). Under Peabody's ownership, Halsey House was renamed The Hollyhocks and served as a guest house for the family's Gilded Age country estate. Peabody's great-grandson, John Tillotson Wainwright III, eventually inherited the house in 1956 and offered it for sale as part of a 0.7-acre parcel.

Halsey House ca. 1905, then known as "The Hollyhocks."

The Southampton History Museum, then known as the Southampton Colonial Society, organized a fundraising campaign and purchased the Halsey House (aka The Hollyhocks) in May 1958 to preserve it for posterity. A committee comprised of William K. Dunwell (then president of the Society), Henry Francis du Pont (founder of the Winterthur Museum), and R. Van der Woude hired architect Robert L. Raley to guide plans for restoring the house to how it may have looked in the late 1600s.

In 1999, another project was undertaken to replace worn and damaged shingles. In 2015, all the windows were restored thanks to the generosity of our community supporters. Of course, the Museum's work as the owner and steward of Halsey House continues today. Maintenance is always ongoing, and we are currently planning a new campaign of restoration and repairs to preserve this important historic site for generations to come!

Thomas Halsey House & Garden, 2018, seen from the formal garden at the rear of the house

To learn more about the site read our

Halsey House Historic Structure Report (2014).