At this site, activity spanned centuries. In 1614 Adrian Block found Indians living between the Scantic and Podunk rivers. At the request of Sachem Wahginnacut in 1635, English families from Dorchester, Massachusetts, settled what is now Windsor, Connecticut. John Bissell established the first ferry in 1641 so he could graze his cattle in the east bank meadow, built the house here in 1658, and gave it to his son Nathaniel in 1662 when the ferry was moved to this location from a crossing north of the Scantic. A sawmill operated on the Scantic in 1670, and the house was garrisoned during King Philip's War in 1675. From 1728 to 1779, merchant Ebenezer Grant had sloops built here for the West Indies trade. In 1816 Epaphras Bissell renovated the house and sold it to John Pelton for use as an inn and tavern. Elihu Drake added a two-story ell in 1851 and sold the property to the town. South Windsor later operated its Poor Farm here until 1925, with the town jail in the rear ell, where original hardware made by Increase Clapp may still be seen. In 1965 descendants of the Bissell, Pelton, and Sperry families bought the property to restore and preserve it.