40174 Main Street
Open on Friday: 10am to 5pm
In 1825, Lewis Klein opened this building as a “house of entertainment” —a tavern. He had purchased the lot from Quaker William Hough about 1815 for $80. Like many of its neighbors on Main Street, it was designed for mixed use—a store or other business below and a residence above. It therefore had no interior staircase between the first and second floors until a 1950s modernization.
The present large downstairs room was built as two rooms with a central corridor; it has seen many uses over the years. After serving as a tavern the space became variously an apothecary and hardware store. In the 1880s the building was the home and office of Dr. G. E. Connell, an enterprising physician. He introduced the telephone to the village in 1884 and charged customers ten cents to call Clark’s Gap, three miles distant at the other end of the line. A side addition was used as a barbershopin the early 20th century. In the early 1950s, a new owner painted the house the color “of the setting sun on Waterford brick.” The paint was meant to slow weathering of the soft brick; it has been repainted in other shades since. The Pink House later was a popular bed and breakfast destination.
The present garden area has seen a succession of buildings over the past 200 years, including blacksmith and wheelwright shops and a succession of stores. A town hall and auditorium occupied the loft area of a large stable on the site. One of these shops stood where the new stone kitchen now stands. At least one of them served briefly as a residence. During an exceptionally rainy period with water pouring down the hill, a tenant joked, “I have the most modern house in Waterford— running water in every room!”
The Pink House is open through the courtesy of Isaac Johnson and Jeff Darrah.