“Now & Then” is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel And Schuyler Morris.
Known as Lone Tree Farm, the 45-acre property was purchased by Charlotte and Hiram Brown from Eliphalet and Sarah St. John in 1830.
The St. Johns settled further north on Canoe Hill Road near Ferris Hill, and when the property was sold to the Browns, the only building on the property was a barn, according to the deed. The Browns are believed to have built the original house, which measures 18 feet by 14 feet. Its unusual exterior construction is made of ¾-inch-thick wood blocks clad to look like stone. The distinctive siding is in keeping with the style of the Washington mansion in Mount Vernon, Virginia. There is some evidence that the house was known as “The Old Block House,” but it is unclear whether this reference is due to its unusual construction.
The Browns owned the property until 1871, when it was sold to Gilbert Birdsall. Mr. Birdsall was the manager of the Third Avenue Street Railway Company. (For more information on Mr. Birdsall, see New Canaanite then and now dated June 9, 2022.) Gilbert Birdsall died in 1886. The property was sold by his widow Ann E. Birdsall to A. Victor Barnes in 1906.
Colonel Barnes, a Yale graduate, was the heir to the American Book Company fortune as well as a financier and investment entrepreneur. He was a lieutenant colonel in World War I and served in the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Department. When he bought the property “for a pittance,” according to a November 2, 1916, New Canaan Advertiser article, he believed he was buying a stone house. The house was reported to be a “dilapidated, disreputable building that could neither be rented nor sold.”
Lone Tree Farm. Photos courtesy of New Canaan Museum & Historical Society
Colonel Barnes hired Judge F.S. Dawless to renovate and expand the house, making it three times its original size. Barnes used wood grooves to imitate stone on the additions. At the time of purchase, the property was 45 acres, but Colonel Barnes purchased adjacent property from the B. Fischer Estate to pursue his interest in dairy farming. Colonel Barnes began raising his own Jersey cattle and became a gentleman farmer. Barnes may have been instrumental in convincing the National Dairy Show to hold its 1916 competition in the east rather than the west, where his cattle won three of six awards. Colonel Barnes later served as president of the American Cattle Club and the dairy farm continued until the start of World War II. Incidentally, in February 1909, Judges Dawless and W.S. Lockwood argued to ask the Board of Warden and Burgesses to establish a building line preventing construction too close to the sidewalk and to straighten and widen East Avenue.
The property was called “Lone Tree Farm” because the hilltop property featured a single prominent tree that was one of the tallest in the community. The “Lone Tree” gave its name to a road off Brushy Ridge that was laid out in 1952. A 1967 article for the New Canaan Historical Society Annual reported that the tree served as a beacon for captains navigating Long Island Sound because it was so clearly visible on the horizon. The same article reports that “treasures” were hidden from British troops during the Battle of Norwalk in 1779 and were dug up over many years. The Lone Tree is also visible in the Walter Bradnee Kirby WPA “aerial photograph” at City Hall (below left).
The house at Lone Tree Farm was expanded to include 26 rooms. The old house served as the entrance hall. According to Colonel Barnes’ son, it was important to his father that the original structure be preserved. The house included a laundry and drying room in the basement and a library of 1,500 books, including first editions. In the 1930s, Colonel Barnes found records that (in his opinion) indicated that the original house had been built closer to 1815, but his claim could not be substantiated.
The Barnes were active in the community. Mrs. Barnes served on the Visiting Nurses Association Committee, participated in the 1952 Garden House Tour, chaired the thrift store volunteers, and hosted a meeting with the chairman of the Connecticut Committee to Make Birth Control Legal in October 1940 (Mrs. Barnes was chair of the Stamford Committee in New Canaan). Mrs. Barnes also served as vice-chair of the Red Cross War Fund Appeal in 1945. Colonel Barnes died in November 1944. In 1953, Mrs. Barnes, who was chair of the board of directors of the Community Mental Hygiene Clinic, held a county fair on her property to benefit the cause. The organization became the Silver Hill Foundation and the fair was held on the property for a number of years. Mrs. Barnes died in 1978.
In 1980, her son, A. Victor Barnes, Jr., offered the house for $525,000. In the mid-1960s, the property was subdivided and sold, leaving the Barnes estate with four of its former 106 acres. Mr. Barnes Jr. and his wife Yvonne were building a new home in Florida at the time. Ms. Barnes was the owner of the New York-based Yvonne Dazay, Ltd. clothing factory. In 1982, Mr. Peter K. Underhill purchased the property. Mr. Underhill, a direct descendant of Captain John Underhill, the King-appointed governor of Vermont in 1658, died in 2016. The property is still owned by the Underhill family.
