575 Leetes Island Road, Guilford, CT

About 575 Leetes Island Road

Perched atop a gentle rise overlooking Shell Beach lagoon across the road, and Long Island Sound in the distance, is the Pelatiah Leete House, one of Guilford's oldest and most completely preserved 18th century dwelling houses. Built circa 1710 by Pelatiah Leete, grandson of Guilford founder and first governor of the united Connecticut colony, William Leete, the house is a classic New England saltbox, with a Georgian style facade arranged around the original carved pediment and pilasters flanking the formal entry door. Built in the medieval English post and beam/plank on frame construction manner, the house is a perfect cube of solid American Chestnut, with massive two story high chestnut planks nailed vertically to the framing, and centered around a massive three story center chimney built of the local granite stone. Pelatiah Leete House was one of the first Connecticut buildings added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and was later designated in 1990 as a contributing structure for the National Register Route 146 Historic District, which follows the contours of State Route 146 in front of the dwelling, and is the only National Register-listed building along the Guilford portion of that district. Over the years it has attracted consistent interest from architectural historians and travel writers alike, appearing first in a 1960s New York Times travel article, as well as the front cover and interior of the 1976 bicentennial year book "Restored America".