The home on 3700 Durham Road in Guilford, Conn. sits on a parcel of land that previously belonged to the Chittenden family, whose descendent Thomas Chittenden went on to become the first governor of Vermont.
The home on 3700 Durham Road in Guilford, Conn. sits on a parcel of land that previously belonged to the Chittenden family in the 1800s. By the 1900s, the area was known as "Chittenden Landing," and it became a popular summer destination.
The home on 3700 Durham Road in Guilford, Conn. sits on a parcel of land that previously belonged to the Chittenden family, whose descendent Thomas Chittenden went on to become the first governor of Vermont.
Gardens can be a typical feature in most homes, but a Guilford home has more than just a few rows of flowers and vegetables in its backyard. It has a working flower farm that’s complete with a farm stand open to the public.
According to the Trout Lily Farm website, the area was referred to as “Chittenden Landing” in the early part of the 1900s and was a popular summer tourist spot where visitors rented boats on Lake Quonnipaug. Then-owner Winifred Chittenden operated a snack stand out of the small boat shed on the land, the farm’s website notes, and when the property was sold in the 1970s, it was later operated as Hillside Christmas Tree Farm.
The current owners purchased the property in 2003, the listing notes, and renovated the boat shed in 2011, transforming it into a farm stand. According to William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty agent Jules Etes, the property is mostly residential, but it has a “special permit use” to operate the farm stand and use the property as a working flower farm. The farm stand has been open to the public for fresh produce and flowers in the past, the listing notes, and in the winter, the owners have displayed products crafted by local business owners in the stand.
The current owner also has a “teaching and design studio,” Etes notes, which can be used as a one-bedroom guest house. In addition to the property’s intricate history, the property has a total of four bedrooms, three full bathrooms and 2,554 square feet of living space. Etes noted in an email that the property’s exterior features direct access to Lake Quonnipaug.
