history
The Swift-Bull House bears the names of two families who owned it for a combined 177 years. Located at the intersection of two main roads, it was built circa 1781 by Asaph Swift, grandson of an Englishman, William Swyft, who had emigrated to America (spelling variations were common among the region’s early settlers). Initially a three-bay, one-story building measuring a little over 1,000 square feet, it was enlarged and reconfigured over the years to accommodate successive generations of Swift’s descendants, including a farmer, the town postmaster, three doctors, and an undertaker.
The house was sold in 1918 to Eugene W. Bull, a carpenter and clockmaker. It was Jacob Bull, Eugene’s great-grandfather, who had built Bull’s Bridge, a wooden bridge across the Housatonic River, completed in 1776, and a local landmark. In addition to its domestic history, the Swift-Bull House has played a central role in the life of the community, as a temporary place of worship before Kent’s Episcopalians built their own church, as a “lubratorium” servicing early automobiles, as a pharmacy, and as an ice cream parlor.
On the basis of extensive research, a restoration was undertaken in 2016, preserving the post-and-beam frame, matching original materials, respecting historic methods of construction. Now home to Ore Hill & Swyft, the Swift-Bull House is testimony to the modesty and integrity of another era, still legible in the building itself and still timely.
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