Opened as a boarding house around 1905 and was managed by Mr.s Edward Padgham. This 2.5 story, clapboard-sided residence was originally built as a summer boarding house for 10 - 12 guests and was home to the teachers. The full basement has a door leading to the side yard.  The first floor consists of a back entry, a kitchen, a "den", dining room, living room, and front entry.  One can see in the floorboards of the living room that the room was once divided into two rooms.  The dining room was also enlarged at one time to hold more guests and a wall cupboard for dishes. The second floor once had 5 bedrooms and a bathroom.  One of the bedrooms has now been transformed into a master bath.  There is also a balcony from where one can see the Boston skyline. The third floor has 4 rooms, a lavatory, and the best view from the house!

In 1976 at Princeton's Bicentennial, the current owner JP and Ann Flatt met Elizabeth Havens (although her married name was Jordan). She came to see the house and shared many of her memories with them.  She was brought up by her great aunt and uncle, the Padghams, and served as one of their chambermaids in the summer, living in the barn, and using the outhouse there, which is now the tack room.  One can still see old newspaper and magazine articles pasted up on the wall.  During the cold winter months she remembered dressing in front of the water heater that hung on the wall in the second floor bathroom.  She said that her uncle was called Pussy Padgham, since he loved and had so many cats.  He used to take his horse Madge down to the Brook Station (timbers from that station built the present Chenot house) to collect his house guests.  Where we now have our downstairs bathroom was once a pantry which she remembered stored barrels of staples; flour, sugar and lard.  She was later married in front of our living room fireplace.  She said at one time in her early teens that she had a mad one-sided crush on the artist Fred (George) Mason.  When I later asked him about it he told me that he had a dislike for blondes!

According to some, the barn may have been moved from across the street to its present location.  When we moved to the house in '73, we had to remove a section of the barn due to rot.  It was large enough to house animals.  The barn still has 2 stalls and at one time we had 5 goats, 20 chickens, and a horse.

There are still several foundations on the property one of which served as an ice house with ice from Echo Lake.  There was also a barbershop in the full basement, and there is still a coal bin there (which we used in the 70's during the oil crisis). We still have 3 of the original porch rocking chairs shown on some old glass negative photos, which we found in the attic (and are now with the Historical Society collection).  According to Al Whitney, who once served on the volunteer fire department, there was once a fire in the attic started by lightning and then extinguished by the subsequent downpour.  The house was too tall for the ladders to reach.  We can still see burned timbers!

When we arrived in 1973, the view toward Boston from the first floor was unobstructed by trees and the view was spectacular.  It was known that one could see the Custom House Tower and the masts from the tall ships in the harbor, but even on a clear day, the new tall buildings now hide the Custom House Tower.  There is still a network of water pipes throughout the neighborhood through which Mr. Gregory distributed water from the spring below Prospect St.  The Gregory family recently gave that spring and the surrounding area to the Princeton Land Trust.  There is now a lovely nature trail, which runs through the area with access to the old and still active spring.  Even in the coldest temperatures, the spring still runs.