Nehemiah Royce House, built in the late 1600s, has recently been restored.
Located at 538 North Main Street, the Nehemiah Royce house (also called the Washington Elm House) is both a fundamental piece of Wallingford’s history and a former Choate Rosemary Hall faculty residence. The architecturally admirable two-story frame Colonial saltbox is the oldest house in town.
The home was established in 1672, only two years after the founding of Wallingford itself. Built by Mr. Nehemiah Royce, who was given the lot on Main Street after his family moved from New Haven along with 37 others, the house was inhabited by the Royce family for nearly 200 years. In 1850, ownership was transferred by Royce’s descendants to the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), currently known as Historic New England. Prior to the transfer, the home was restored and filled with period antiques by Ms. Helen and Ms. Lucy Royce, preparing it to serve as a museum.
The home’s other moniker, the Washington Elm House, arose following George Washington’s visit to Wallingford in 1775, a stop he made while traveling from Philadelphia to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take control of the Continental Army. While many students may be aware of the Founding Father’s visit to what is now Homestead, it was at the Nehemiah Royce House, next to the large elm tree in front of the yard, where Washington addressed the residents of Wallingford.
In 1924, the house was moved 300 feet by horses to what is now its current location, and in 1963, The Choate School began using the home as a faculty residence. Choate’s headmaster at the time, Mr. Seymour St. John, “had long admired the house,” according to Mr. Lee Sylvester in a 1989 overview of the Royce House’s history, and had pushed for the home to become Choate property. The home was eventually deeded to Choate in 1962, thanks to a friendly relationship between Mr. St. John and Ms. Helen Royce, the homeowner at the time.
The house became home to Choate faculty members following minor repairs and refurbishing. Teacher Mr. Deron Chang, who visited the home, said, “I recall it being a classic New England farmhouse. Wide plank wood floors, old warped glass in the windows. It has been 20 years since I stepped into the house, however.” The School’s doctor, Mr. Leonard Krassner, lived in the Nehemiah Royce House during the period of The Choate School’s ownership. “By the time [Ms.] Penny [Post] and I visited Royce House, it had already been sold to the town, and therefore was not a faculty residence,” explained Mr. Chang. “I was told by Grady Bohen’s dad that it was really charming, but really drafty.”
Choate Rosemary Hall donated the home to the Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust in 1999. Choate’s archivist, Ms. Judy Donald, explained why Choate transferred ownership of the house, saying, “These homes needed a lot of maintenance, and we did not own any property contiguous to it.”
