Seventh in a series on Brandon’s historic buildings
By JAMES PECK
There are many historic residences along wide, tree-lined Park Street, from Central Park to the 4-way intersection with Marble and High Streets. But one house stands out above them all on the hill above the intersection, on what is now called Park Street Extension.
This picturesque spot has long been called the “head of Park Street” and the old farmhouse there looking down Park Street was built 150 years ago in 1875.
Many in town still call it the Philipsen House after the Philipsen family that owned it the longest: 55 years from 1952 to 2007, when current owners, Devon and Courtney Fuller bought it.
School Lot
The first settler on the property was Philip Jones who came from Stamford, Conn. in 1786 and bought the first division of the school right, a lot allocated to building the town’s school. But the town’s school was never built there; rather, schoolhouses were built on Grove Street and lower Park Street, and then on Seminary Hill. Jones then built his farmhouse, barn and outbuildings instead, farming the land until his death in 1846 at age 86. Philip and his wife Hannah are buried in the Congregational Church Cemetery at the other end of Park St.
The farm went to their youngest son Alvin Bingham Jones, who was 40 at the time. Alvin and his wife Oce Anne Gray raised a large family of three girls and six boys on the farm.
In September of 1858, a large military muster took place on the Joneses’ pastureland. Troops came by train from all over the state: Burlington, Bellows Falls, Woodstock, Rochester, Granville, Cavendish and many more towns. Vermont Governor Fletcher, Lieutenant Governor Slade and a number of high-ranking military officers were there, marching with the troops, giving speeches and being entertained by John A. Conant at his mansion in Conant Square.
In 1868, Alvin Jones died of typhoid pneumonia at age 62. In 1872, his son-in-law Charles Dunn bought it, and then sold it in 1874. At the time, the property was described as “the residence and farm known as the Alvin B. Jones place in Brandon Village, located at the east end of Park Street, being the most pleasant and desirable property in Rutland County, containing about eighty acres of choice land, with a large garden, fruit trees, shrubbery, &c.”
Sylvester Moulton
The new owner was 35-year-old Sylvester Turner Moulton from Willimantic, Conn. Moulton had gotten rich as the principal travelling salesman for the Willimantic Linen Company, a huge and successful mill company that made sewing-machine thread. Thus, he was able to pay nearly $8,000 for the property and have enough to build a new farmhouse and barn.
That he did in 1875, tearing down the 90-year-old Jones buildings and sparing no expense to build a state-of-the art farmhouse and barn complete with even running water.
After it was completed, S. T., as he was known, commissioned a rising artist, 25-year-old Herbet Samuel Packard, to draw the new house resulting in the beautiful lithograph accompanying this article.
S. T. was determined to have the best of everything, including the best oxen, horses, and bulls. He owned a rare spotted Arabian Albino mare named “Biny” and a prize Devon bull he rented out to stud. This would not be the last “Devon” to live there!
Church Clock
S. T. Moulton was quite a character. On one occasion he dragged a land roller through Brandon’s streets just to get his point across and paid a fine of $5.
On another occasion, he made a name for himself in town when he got sick of seeing the Congregational Church clock not working every time he drove down Park Street to town and paid $50 to have it fixed.
In 1886, the Moultons decided to move back to Connecticut and sold the farm for $7,650 to Henry C. Harrison, a rich lawyer from Chittenden. Harrison would own it only a short while after his wife died leaving him with three young children and his health declining.
In 1900, he sold the farm to William Henry Harrison, who was unrelated. Will Harrison wasn’t much of a farmer, but ran a horse stable there for years, for both prize horses and work horses. In 1923, he fell off a hay wagon and perforated his abdomen on a pitchfork, dying five days later of septicemia.
Roy & Helen Bresee
In 1924, Roy and Helen Bresee bought the farm out of Harrison’s estate. Roy had made his money buying and selling real estate including another large farm in Forest Dale and the Cascade House property on Lake Dunmore. The latter was located on the west side of the big bay and Bresee sold it to investors from New York City who then ran a boy’s camp there. Shirley Farr eventually bought the land and donated it to the state to become Branbury State Park.
Brandon Country Club
In 1926, Roy Bresee sold 91 acres of farmland behind 83 Park to Frank Lord, who then donated it to the Brandon Country Club, a nine-hole course that opened in 1927 and operated until 1944. Bresee kept the farmhouse and out buildings, but granted a right of way driveway to the clubhouse.
Both Roy and Helen got involved in community affairs. Helen joined many clubs including the Women’s Auxiliary of St. Thomas Church and held meetings and luncheons at the house. Roy was appointed a fence viewer by the Selectmen for a few years, the same position held formerly by Alvin Jones and Sylvester Moulton.
He ran for Selectman in 1924 but wasn’t elected until the next year, then again in 1926 and 1933. He also served as deputy sheriff, school director, and lister.
Ledge End Tea Room
In 1925, they opened a small tearoom where they served luncheons, dinners, and teas. They named it the Ledge End and also took in overnight guests.
The Bresee family owned 83 Park for 28 years, until 1952. In 1949, both Roy and Helen died of heart attacks and their daughter sold the property to Bill and Marion Philipsen.
The Philipsens
As stated at the beginning of this article, the Philipsens would own 83 Park from 1952 to 2007.
Dr. Philipsen was the town veterinarian, for both large and small animals, over those years, succeeding his father Herman, a Danish immigrant, who practiced at 34 Franklin Street for 30 years before.
Hike to St. Louis
In 1929, Bill Philipsen was only 20 and had just graduated from Brandon High, when he volunteered for an epic promotional event put on to promote the local Ayrshire cow breed. He and two other boys walked two Ayrshire cows, one pregnant, 1,295 miles from Brandon to St. Louis over 90 days, garnering nationwide news coverage.
Bill, Marion, and their three sons, Doug, Dave, and Bill, moved into the house at 83 Park in August of 1952. There, Bill practiced his veterinary medicine for 50 years. Many in town may remember taking their pets there.
National Register of Historic Places
In 1976, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) along with 244 other architecturally and historically significant buildings in Brandon as part of the Brandon Village Historic District. Thirty of these old houses, built in the 1800s, line Park Street.
Second Devon
In 2007, Devon and Courtney Fuller from So. Hadley, Mass. bought the 9.1-acre property from the Philipsens. According to Devon, “We were in town with the realtor we had been working with looking at other houses. She suggested that we look at 83 Park and once Courtney saw the view from the music room, it was pretty much over.”
Like the previous six owners, the Fullers fell in love with the beautiful house and land at the “head of Park Street.” The Fullers moved into the house in the summer of 2007, along with their two young daughters, Madeline and Chloe.
The story goes that Devon’s name was chosen when his father was reading a book about the Duke of Devonshire at the time of his birth. You may recall the last Devon on the 83 Park property was Sylvester Moulton’s Devon bull, a unique, tenacious, and hardy individual similar to Devon Fuller!
Devon is a very tenacious restorer of old houses, so this was right up his alley. Right away, he had to repair damage from a tree that fell on the front of the house. Then, he went right to work, with extensive remodeling of the house.
Devon’s business became Quality First Painting. He loves restoring old Brandon houses, particularly nearby. “I have done some kind of paintwork on all but eight houses on Park Street, with a goal to hit all of them before I stop!” Check out his recent work on the Inn on Park Street at 69 Park.
Meanwhile, Courtney worked at Rutland Regional Medical Center for 15 years as an ER physician and now works at the orthopedic clinic as a non-operative sports medicine doctor.
Like Roy Bresee before him, Devon was a town Selectman, serving from 2008 to 2018. He was also one of the founders of the Downtown Brandon Alliance, serving on that board from 2009 to the present and as their president for the last five years.
Brandon is fortunate to have the Fullers as caretakers of this historic house and property.
