The Past

The Davis House is a period federal house which boasts architectural features ahead of its time, including the original formal garden pictured below. The home's superior features are consistent with the ambitions of the Shire town's first citizens, for "Chelsea was the home of many smart men who had emigrated from Connecticut and Massachusetts to make homes for themselves in the wilderness" said Sarah Fisk Bacon Harris in 1824. A History of Chelsea, Vermont: 1784-1984, Chelsea Historical Society, Inc., (1984).

According to Mrs. Jean Davis Battey, her great-great grandfather, Nathan Davis, came to Chelsea's West Hill from Connecticut around 1800. His son, Aaron Davis born in 1825, is perhaps the house's best remembered owner. According to "Vermont Records," Aaron Davis was "characterized by keen perceptive faculties and sound business judgment." Mr. Davis was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Chelsea and for many years held "offices of public trust, in which he gained a position of unusual influence among his townsmen and residents of the neighboring towns by the able discharge of his duties."

The Davis House remained in the Davis-Battey family for over 100 years.

The Present