M.H. Merchant House

The Full Story

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The history of the M.H. Merchant Stone House goes back to the early days of Cornwallville. Members of the Jerome family, headed by John Jerome and his wife Margaret Stickle, were among the early settlers in the Town of Durham. They purchased 94 acres of land in 1816 and built a thriving farm,

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In 1869, the Jerome homestead passed on to Horatio Hough, a farmer and boardinghouse keeper. It burned to the ground in 1893, and a few years later, in 1899, the property was sold to Melvin H. Merchant. Merchant was a farmer and amateur inventor.

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He began work on a new house on the property in the summer of 1900. The two-story structure, built of local fieldstone, has walls 22 inches thick. The name of the stonemason is unknown; however the initials H.E. are carved into a cornerstone. The house, the only one of its kind in the area, is a unique example of a vernacular style of stone architecture that does not reference older Dutch stone houses in the Hudson River Valley.