The Restoration of Amos Brown House

During restoration

After restoration. Photo by Kelly Fletcher

Amos Brown House was built in 1802 as a brick Cape-style house in the town of Whitingham in southern Vermont. Today, Amos Brown House tells a tale of 200 years of rural Vermont life and is also a testament to careful and thoughtful repair work by dedicated craftsmen. 

By the time of The Landmark Trust USA’s acquisition of this property in 2000, the house had seriously deteriorated. Inappropriate repairs and alterations in the 1960s and 1970s had weakened the brick walls, leading to severe cracking and small areas of collapse. Poor drainage had also caused significant rot.

So serene was the location and so unaltered were the barns and sheds that The Landmark Trust USA determined Amos Brown House to be well worth saving. We reversed the later changes and discovered many clues of the house history. These clues enabled us to accurately rebuild the stairway and the four chimneys that had been removed.

In order to repair the brickwork in the most historically accurate manner, the Trust decided to import a mason from England who was expert with historic mortars. Our master mason worked with local masons, teaching them about historic lime mortars instead of the Portland cement mortars used today.

You can book a stay at the historic Amos Brown House here.