If checked, this site is within the Fire Place (Brookhaven Hamlet) Historic District

19-Initial Const Date: [The original house was probable built about 1793 by Isaac and Scudder Ketcham. Records of the Town of Brookhaven Book A 1690 - 1798 page 253 [113] states that 'At a meeting of the Trustees of the freeholders and Commonality of the Town of Brookhaven held this 5th Day of August 1793 ...Trustees did grant and Sell to Isaac Ketcham a Certain Piece of upland and swamp...etc'. "The Miller Collection" (the Post-Morrow Foundation in Box RG7 Series 4) is a deed dated 1793. ''Trustees Deed for Beaverdam Stream at Swamp - 1793 to Isaac Ketcham" Signed: Joseph Strong, Isaac White and Selah Strong, President. Fee: 3£ 18 shillings. There appear to be no Ketcham's living in Fire Place in 1790 (from the census). The only Ketcham family living in Fire Place in 1800 was Elizabeth (Rose) Ketcham. Elizabeth was Scudder Ketcham's wife (m. 1789). Scudder was Isaac Ketcham's son. There was a Scudder Ketcham living in Huntington in 1790; there were no children in the household, suggesting that they were newly married. The 1797 "Hulse" map of the Town of Brookhaven shows the Ketcham property. Elizabeth's family in 1800 consisted of 3 males and 2 females all under the age of 10. There were also 3 slaves. One of the children was likely Isaac Ketcham, who in the 1840 census was listed as the head of the household. In the 1850 census, Timothy Ketcham has become the head of the household, and is still head of the household through the 1880 census. JD]

19-Architect:

19-Builder:

L. 589, p. 476, 31 May 1906: Indentured between Louisa Goodall and Alfred Nelson. "All that tract or parcel of land, situated in the Village of Brookhaven, County of Suffolk and State of New York, vounded and described as follows:- Geginning at a stone on the easterly side of the South Country Road two hundred seventy-two (272) feet northerly of northwest corner of land late of Nathaniel Miller, deceased, thence running easterly, thence northerly and thence again easterly by and with said land late of Nathaniel Miller, deceased to the centre of Little Neck Run; thence running by and with the centre to the land of Sylvester Corwin; thence by and with said land to a point two rods westerly of the grave yard; thence northerly and parallel with said grave yard one hundred twelve (112) feet to land of said Sylvester Corwin; thence westerly by and with said land to the South Country Road; thence Southerly along the easterly side of said road four hundred and twenty-two (422) feet to a stake placed for a bound; thence running easterly forty-two (42 feet to a stake placed for a bound; thence running southerly fifty-six (56) feet to land late of Timothy Ketcham, deceased to the South Country Road [the preceding bounds would seem to be taking the property around the Presbyterian Chapel excepted out later]; thence running southerly along the easterly side of the South Country Road to the point or place of beginning, estimated to contain about forty-three (43) acres of land, excepting nevertheless a quarter of an acred of land sold to the Presbyterian Church Society [Chapel] and the land taken for a three rod road running through said property." [The three rod road was probably meaning Old Stump Road.]
[While this Indenture at first appears to be both for the Ketcham Farm property and the southern portion of what is believed to have been the Corwin farm, when plotted, ambiguities are apparent, especially as they relate to the starting point, which requires further research and analysis. (March 2010) ]

Edna Valentine Bruce, "Long Island Forum" December 1956. p. 234.

"… In 1900 the Ketcham house stood almost in Fireplace Neck Road, directly opposite the later War Memorial. Old houses were built close to the road so the ears of their inmates might more readily gather town news (there were no party lines in those days).

"In 1905* when Jacob Valentine, the postmaster [and Edna Valentine's father], bought the Ketcham place, the Goodalls bought the rest of the farm and moved the Ketcham house to where it now stands, the residence of the Desmond Nelsons. In 1916 the Valentines sold their land [the original location of the Brook Store and Valentine residence], separating house and store, moved the store across Beaver Dam Brook to become the present Brook Store and the house across the street back of where the Ketcham house had stood. …."

* This transaction may have occurred earlier, for in 1903 Louisa Goodall sold property to James H. Post which was used to expand the site of the adjacent Presbyterian Chapel or Lecture Room (Br05C)