Adventures of the Peck-Nichols house

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Clockwise from top left: The Peck-Nichols house dismantling begins, reassembling the house in Idaho, the exterior all complete, and the newly decorated interior. (Kevin Durkin photos)

By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY

When one thinks of adventures, they tend to think they’re experienced by people, or dogs. In rare cases, however, it can be a house – the actual building – that has adventures. In this case, the adventures of the Peck-Nichols house took it to Idaho.

Our story begins somewhere around 1783 when Captain Augustus Peck returned from the Revolutionary War and married Lucy Porter. Her parents provided the land, now owned by the Middlebury Land Trust (MLT), for a home and it is presumed the couple built the house that had these adventures.

That house was continuously occupied for 225 years until Fredrick Ami Lawton died there in December 2008. After that, the old building lay vacant, its condition deteriorating all the time. It was saved in 2011, by a strategic intervention by the Historical Society, from being burned down as an exercise for the fire department. It remained standing, with some repairs done to hold back time. But deterioration and vandalism resumed as it sat vacant.

By the time the MLT purchased the property and the house from the town of Middlebury, it was – to be kind – a bit of a wreck. The front porch was a hazard, and inside the floorboards and joists were rotting away. Estimates to restore it came in at $500,000, way too much money for a building that no longer served a purpose.

During an MLT board meeting, members discussed businesses that rescue old historic homes by dismantling and then moving them. Scott Peterson sent a letter to the editor of “Old House Journal” that was seen by Kevin Durkin, whose Heritage Restorations company had already moved 400 barns, houses and historic buildings.

Conversations ensued. Kevin Durkin traveled to Middlebury from his home in Waco, Texas and – despite his foot plunging through rotting floorboards while he was examining the interior – he and the MLT began the arrangements for the house to begin its next adventure.

The COVID pandemic delayed some of the process, but by July 2020 things were well underway. The outer layer and rotted bits were stripped away, and in a painstaking process, each board, beam and brick was numbered so the house could be reassembled like some giant construct-by-numbers kit. The pieces were loaded onto a large flatbed trailer and began the next step in their adventure, traveling cross-country to the mountains outside of Deary, Idaho.

Once there, on a carefully chosen site nestled among pines on a small knoll, its transformation from a pile of numbered pieces back into a house began. The addition from around 1840 was moved from the side to the back of the house, but every beam and stone was in its original place.

During deconstruction, many discoveries were made: a kitchen fireplace that had been covered over, bricks that had been signed, and evidence the house had already survived three fires and one tree though its roof. While most of the home’s design was described by Durkin as a “classic Connecticut home,” the style of the front was thought to be an add-on, as it was more common in Dutch New York. However, deconstruction revealed it was indeed part of the original design. Possibly Captain Peck took a liking to the style during his military travels.

The home in its current incarnation has new siding, rotten components replaced, and a completely restored and decorated interior. To some extent, it has remained “in the family,” as Kevin Durkin is related to the original owner, Captain Peck, through his mother’s side. In no small part due to that special connection, he decided to keep the house rather than sell it, (one of a few other than the one he lives in now), and it will be open to visitors as an Airbnb operated by his daughter, Rebeccah.

Meanwhile, back here in Middlebury, the foundation and some of the chimney remain on the site, and in a collaboration between the MLT, Preservation CT, and the Middlebury Historical Society, including utilizing funds provided by Mr. Durkin, it will be developed as a simple interpretive installation.

If you’re interested in seeing more of this process, you can watch a show made of it that includes much of the related history, in a program hopefully to be broadcast in the near future. It is part of the series “Restoration Road” on the Magnolia Network, shown on the Discovery+ streaming channel.

You can contact this writer at jswspotlight@gmail.com. Visit the MLT on Facebook or at middleburylandtrust.org.