This house stands on lots 20 and 26 of a 64-lot of land owned by Quaker Mahlon Janney and auctioned after his death in 1812. In 1851, Carpenter Samuel C. Hough (1811-1887) a
Methodist, purchased the two lots, still-undeveloped. Shortly before he died in 1887, one of his and Mary Smallwood Hough’s nine children, Andrew Monroe Hough (1852-1915) bought the pair for $95 and combined them into one lot.
By the end of 1888 “Roe” Hough’s purchase featured a new frame house and the property was valued at $750. He married Edith Virginia, daughter of Waterford blacksmith Silas Corbin. Roe worked as a dry goods clerk in Waterford for much of his life, including at the Corner Store. Edith, at one point, worked in a millinery store on Main Street. The couple had no children but Roe was civic-minded.
In February 1888 a county newspaper reported that Mr. Hough lent a neighborly hand to two little children “who were brought to town on the morning of the 3rd, in a dreadful condition, having their feet, and the stomach of one, badly frozen. ”Roe” raised money to get some necessary clothing. Kind people of the town furnished them suitable garments and Dr. G. E. Connell administered medical aid.”
That same year, Hough served as registrar for an election in the village. Roe died in 1915; Edith in 1946, two years after selling the house to Eleanor Love James, of a long-time Waterford family. The house subsequently passed through several owners until 2002 when the Hertel family purchased it from Elaine Reynolds, who with her husband Neil had enlarged it in 1982.
The house includes overhanging eaves, shingle siding, and two-over-two windows, all popular at the time of its construction.