[3] The house is a colonial Cape Cod with an ell, featuring ten rooms, five fireplaces, and a spacious cellar.

The original paneling in the parlor was painted with simulated walnut wood grain in a style typical of early Georgian architecture.

Elisha and two of his brothers enlisted in the Continental Army and were captured in the Battle of Long Island and held for months on squalorous British prison ships.

[5][6] Released in a prisoner exchange, Elisha Benton returned home suffering from smallpox in January 1777.

[6][5] In 1934, the Chapin family, which was descended from the Bentons, sold the house to WTIC radio host and University of Connecticut dietetics instructor Florrie Bishop Bowering.

Bowering's maid reportedly saw the specter of a young woman in a bridal dress wandering through the house and weeping.