Peter Burr, chief justice of the Superior Court of colonial Connecticut, built the Burr Homestead around 1732 and later passed it to his grandson Thaddeus Burr and Thaddeus's wife Eunice Dennie Burr after their marriage in 1759. In 1775, the homestead sheltered Dorothy Quincy, fiancée of patriot leader John Hancock, after she fled the Battle of Lexington, where on April 19th the shot heard round the world was fired, and she remained in town until Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, joined her. On August 23, 1775, Reverend Andrew Elliot of First Congregational Church married the couple at the Burr residence. Local lore says that before the wedding, a young Aaron Burr visited his second cousin Thaddeus and paid his respects to Miss Quincy. On July 7, 1779, the American Revolution reached Fairfield when British troops led by General Tryon came ashore from ships on Long Island Sound. Many of the town's men, including Thaddeus Burr, were away fighting or working for the patriot cause when Fairfield was attacked and set ablaze, and although families fled inland, Eunice Burr remained at home. Tryon, who had visited with the Burrs, sent a guard to protect Eunice, but despite his assurances, she wrote in her diary that British soldiers ransacked her house, destroyed furniture, stripped the silver buckles from her shoes, and then set the homestead ablaze. In 1790, the Burrs hired Fairfield architect and carpenter Daniel Dimon to build a new house on the original foundation based on plans sent by John Hancock from his own Boston residence. In the mid 1800s, the Burr Homestead was enlarged and remodeled into a 15-room Greek Revival mansion with a stately colonnaded porch and classical details. Today the mansion is owned by the Town of Fairfield and managed by the Fairfield Museum.