Thomas E. Porter, born August 28, 1830, in Coventry, Connecticut, was educated in private and public schools and academies in his native state, taught school in Tolland and Hartford Counties, then moved to New York City and worked in Western trade before going into business for himself in 1859, with his earlier experience contributing to his success and material wealth. During the summer he returned to the farm for respite from city life, and like his father he remained deeply interested in education, contributing liberally to the library in Andover, which in honor of his family was called the Porter Library. The Strong-Porter House consists of two sections built over a long period: the eastern half was built by Aaron Strong, who lived there in the 1750s, and in 1758 the Strongs sold the house to the Porter family, which later added the western half and a rear lean-to with two kitchens by about 1777. A census taken in 1790 found nine Porters living in the western half, for a total of twenty-one Porter family members in the house, which by the Revolutionary War had two chimneys and a Georgian floor plan. The Porters occupied the house for about 170 years and lived and farmed there through the entire nineteenth century. George Dudley Seymour, a Connecticut antiquarian, later bought and restored the house, having believed that Nathan Hale's mother Elizabeth Strong had been born there, though later research found that her uncle built the first part of the house around 1730 and that she did not live there; Seymour called it the Northampton House because many early Coventry settlers came from Northampton, Massachusetts. Less is known about the great barn at the homestead, but according to Seymour it was built by Thomas E. Porter, probably in the 1850s, and burned around 1890; it had a basement, main floor, second story, large cupola, and a four-bay carriage shed with an enclosed office, and some portions may have survived the fire for a time. William and Sarah Cheney Porter, Thomas's parents, moved to the farm in 1809 when they married, and William, an able agriculturist interested in education, oversaw a productive farm where wool, flax, and silk were grown and manufactured until 1842, after which home textile production gave way to animal husbandry, perhaps prompting the barn's construction. In November 2001, Chris Ferguson, a Coventry Eagle Scout, led volunteers in clearing brush and trees from the old barn foundation, adding a path and split-rail fence so visitors could safely view the site, and the project was completed in September 2002.