The house was built by Leonard Putnam7 Junkins, (John6, Joseph5, James4, Joseph3, Alexander2, Robert1), b. 1837. Leonard7 married Ann Dorothy Avery and they had 10 children, six of whom are buried in the family burial ground (Leonard Cemetery) on the property.
Ann (Avery) Junkins died in 1888 and Leonard7 remained a widower for the next 14 years. In 1895, he married Elizabeth Hill and built the existing house for his new bride. Elizabeth died in 1900.
Leonard's youngest child, Berta A.8, with the help of a part time bookkeeper, maintained the farm, which had gradually grown with the addition of the barn and other buildings. In 1919, Berta married Frederick Fillis and had one child, Alice. Berta died in 1934, and her husband died in 1941. Daughter Alice married Bernard Manson in 1942 and moved away, so the farm remained idle until 1947 when it was sold to Arthur V. Stempson. There have been a series of owners since then. The present owner, James Williams, has done much to rehabilitate the buildings and 60 acres of the grounds.
At the 1994 JFA reunion, Alice (Fillis) Manson showed early pictures of the house and told about the interior or the house as it was when she lived there. The first floor of the house had a parlor, sitting or piano room, dining room kitchen and shed. The second floor had four bedrooms, a sewing room and a storage shed. The third floor was a full attic.
The original drive came straight in from the road to the barn but was later re-routed through the orchards. Directly across from the barn there was a corn crib and other outbuildings, including a wood shed, garages and a milk house.
When the farm was sold in 1947, it still had no inside bathroom, no electricity and no furnace.
