40205 Main Street
In 1801 Isaac Hough, a Quaker, bought lots 14 and 15 of Mahlon Janney’s early subdivision of the Big Hill. Hough sold them to local joiner Thomas Lacey in 1813. Between 1818 and 1820 tax records indicate a structure had been built—as two joined-but-separate houses—probably being used as rentals. Lacey’s heirs sold the property to John Hough in 1837. The property thus returned to the Hough family—albeit a Methodist branch—and would remain in the family until 1908.
In 1855 half of the house sold for $500, but eleven years later it brought only $125—eloquent testimony to at least one effect of the Civil War.
An extraordinary view from the back of the house across the village to the fields beyond, all of which is within the National Historic Landmark, clearly shows the relationship of village house to rural landscape, one of the primary reasons for Waterford’s being named a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
The Hough House is open through the courtesy of present owners Fiona and Mark Sullivan.