Built about 1774, it is a well-preserved example of late Colonial architecture, regionally unusual for its hip roof.

[1] The Thomas Lyman House is located in a rural setting northwest of Durham center, on the east side of Middlefield Road (Connecticut Route 147) just north of a stream crossing.

It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with two chimneys, a hip roof and two front dormers, and is oriented facing south.

[2] The house was built c. 1774 by Thomas Lyman IV on land purchased by his father in 1709.

Lyman, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, is said to have been friends with Thomas Jefferson and to have entertained Lafayette in this house several times.