Across from the church was the Chelsea Inn run by Anna Burnham. In the summertime there were a few steady boarders who came out from the city and spent the summer. At noon time Mrs. Burnham walked up and down the pathway ringing a hand bell to call the guests back from where ever they might be visiting. My brothers and I were told that this was the time for us to come home also. There’s lots of history associated with the inn. A British spy caught just before the revolution was forced to “run the gauntlet” between the church and the inn. As he passed between the two, lines of town folks were entitled to take a swing at him. Not fatal, but not pleasant. The building was considerably larger than at present… On the second floor there was a ballroom with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and was the scene of dancing and partying…In the past the Chelsea Inn must have known success…The business outgrew the structure and the Prospect House was constructed as an annex.

There was an organization known either as “The Side Walk Society” or “The Village Improvement Society” which took it upon itself to make a gravel path from the top of Hammond Hill to…south of the post office. This ran along the east side of the street. A few of us remember being drafted to weed the walk, which was done under protest.

Wendell Davis