The Square House: Early History

The Square House, (labeled in the 1797 map on the right as the "Stage House"), has stood through 21 owners, starting with Jacob Pierce, a yeoman farmer who purchased the land from the original settlers of Rye prior to 1675. Pierce, a soldier in the Connecticut troops, built his house sometime between 1675 and 1683 and died around 1690 while on an expedition in northern New York.

Pierce's widow and her new husband sold the property to Peter Brown who built a new house on the site in the early 1700's. That house now forms the left side of the current structure. It is thought that Brown used Pierce's house as his kitchen, but any remaining part of the Pierce house was demolished in 1905 when the building became the municipal hall. Brown also built a mill on the Blind Brook behind the Square House.

After Brown's death, the house was sold to a blacksmith and then to the Rev. James Wetmore, whose son Timothy first operated it as an inn and tavern beginning in 1760.