An online exhibit · Weston History & Culture Center

The Coley House

Five generations, one front door, 1841 to today.

c.1870

The earliest photograph, taken before 1872. The couple in front may be David Dimon and Mary Eliza Coley, who built the house in 1841.

Scroll to age the house ↓ Walk through in 3D

  1. An early sepia photograph of the Coley House behind tall trees, a man and a woman standing in front.

    c.1870 The earliest photograph, taken before 1872. The couple in front may be David Dimon and Mary Eliza Coley, who built the house in 1841.

  2. The house about 1900, seen through bare trees above a stone wall.

    c.1900 About 1900, above its stone wall on the hill into Weston.

  3. A postcard view of the house with its full-width porch.

    1904 On a postcard mailed in 1904. The front windows now reach the floor.

  4. The house with two children on the porch.

    c.1910 Young James Sturges Coley and his cousin on the porch, some time after 1905.

  5. The house in the 1940s seen from the southeast, with the kitchen wing.

    c.1945 The war years, when three generations of Coleys lived here.

  6. A black-and-white photograph of the front, with ivy and shrubs by the steps.

    1960s The 1960s or '70s: Cleora and Jimmy's last decades in the house.

  7. The front of the house in 2003, a flag hanging from the porch.

    2003 2003, twenty years after the house came to the Historical Society.

  8. The front of the house in 2016 with brown shutters and the red barns behind.

    2016 2016: sound from the road, but the paint was failing and termites had been at the timbers.

  9. The freshly painted front of the house in June 2020 with black shutters.

    2020 June 2020: fresh paint, new shutters, and a ramp to the family's own side door.

  10. Supporters crowd the front porch as a red ribbon is cut.

    2022 30 September 2022: the ribbon is cut, and the house opens again.

1841
David Dimon Coley builds a Greek Revival farmhouse to impress anyone coming up the hill into Weston.
142 years
Five generations of one family lived here, farming onions, then dairy cows, sheep and prize oxen.
1941–45
The rooms today are set in the war years. No other historic house in Connecticut shows that decade.

Come in. The radio's on.

In 1941 the house turned one hundred. That spring, Jim and Cleora Coley moved in with their new baby, Jimmy, to live with Jim's widowed mother, Florence. Within the year the country was at war.

This exhibit walks you through the house room by room, the way a tour does. Meet the five generations of Coleys, scrape back the parlor wallpaper to find the 1940s, and climb the stairs to the one room that was never papered over: Jimmy's.

Then come and see the real thing. Some things only work in person: the radio dial, the plates at the dining table, the back stair your guide will open for you.

The framed Award of Merit certificate. Award of Merit, 2023 Connecticut League of History Organizations, for the reinterpretation of the Coley House
A studio portrait of Jimmy Coley as a toddler, about 1942, sitting in a white romper.
Jimmy Coley, about 1942. He would live here for the next forty years.

Step inside

The house, then and now

The house has been rebuilt around its families. Switch between 1841, 1941 and today to see what changed, and where the old chimney went.

Today. The rooms are set as they were in 1941–45. Tours come in by the ramp at the north door, which was the family's everyday entrance, and go round the ground floor before heading upstairs to Jimmy's room. Choose a room to step inside.

Swipe sideways to see the whole plan.

well Pantry & laundry milk door Kitchen Room 3 → Back hall Bath 1920s Office Cleora's Room 2 → Back parlor Room 1 → Dining room the 1841 kitchen Room 4 → Hall stairs up Front parlor Room 3 → Sunroom front porch EAST · WESTON ROAD open porch Borning room Kitchen hearth & Dutch oven Dining room Entry Parlor chimney winding stair porch ramp

Plan after Architectural Preservation Studio, 2017. North is to the right; the front of the house faces east.

Walk through the house in 3D

Press play, then click or tap to move from room to room, and drag to look around. The dollhouse button shows the whole house at once.

On a phone? Open the tour full screen. The 3D tour is a scan of the house; the rooms below tell their stories.

The rooms

  1. The back parlor in 2022: a fireplace, bookcases and the Life in the '40s exhibit panels.

    Room 1 · Back parlor

    The Five Generations

    Who were the Coleys, and how did one acre become a farm of a hundred?

  2. Cleora's office and sewing room: a slant-top desk, a treadle sewing machine and a dress on a form.

    Room 2 · Office and sewing room

    Cleora's Office

    Who decided how much sugar Weston got in 1942?

  3. The front parlor with a 1930s floor radio beside the fireplace and green velvet chairs.

    Room 3 · Front parlor and kitchen

    The Parlor Radio & the Home Front

    What did the war sound like from a Weston farmhouse?

  4. The dining room with a set table, blue rug, blue floral wallpaper and a tall case clock.

    Room 4 · Dining room

    Sit at the Table

    This room was once the kitchen. What gives it away?

  5. Jimmy Coley's bedroom after conservation: brown and cream wallpaper of horses and deer under a window.

    Room 5 · Upstairs bedroom

    Jimmy's Room

    Why is this the one room whose wallpaper is original?

  6. The front parlor's bay window in 2022, with lace curtains, a round table and the restored sofa.

    Room 6 · The whole house, 2016–2022

    Peeling Back the Layers

    How do you bring a house back to 1941?

A brief history

The David Dimon Coley House

Built around 1841 in the Greek Revival style, the house was lived in by five generations of the Coley family until 1983. David Dimon Coley (1811–1894) bought the one-acre home lot from his father-in-law in 1841. The rest of the farm came to his wife, Mary Eliza Andrews (1817–1872), as a gift and an inheritance from her father, so the official owner of the Coley Homestead was a woman.

Before 1872 the house was remodeled, with a porch across the whole front and a bay window in the parlor. The kitchen moved into a wing on the south side, and the old kitchen became the dining room. Around 1910 David's grandson James took down the great center chimney. Bathrooms followed in the 1920s and 1960s.

For much of its life the homestead was a working farm. The last Coleys to own it were James S. and Cleora B. Coley and their son, James (Jimmy) B. Coley. Cleora deeded the house, barn, outbuildings and 3.7 acres to the Weston Historical Society in 1978, and the Society received them on her death in 1983.

On a tour today

What you'll see

  • The 1940s rooms. The parlors, Cleora's office and sewing room, the kitchen, the sunroom and the dining room, set as they were in 1941–45 from photographs and historic research.
  • Sit at the table. Take a seat in the dining room, turn over your plate, and talk about the questions that mattered to Weston then and now.
  • Life in the '40s. In the back parlor, compare the 1840s, the 1940s, and your predictions for 2040.
  • Jimmy's room and “Let's Play!” Upstairs, the bedroom with its original wallpaper, and the toys children in Weston played with, including some made in Weston.
  • Twelve Stories of Weston. Across the hall, the town's history from its first peoples to the Merritt Parkway and the Saugatuck Reservoir.

Guided tours Thursdays and the first and last Sundays of the month, at 1, 2 and 3 pm, and by appointment.

$5 adults, $3 ages 5–17; under 5 and members free. 104 Weston Road, Weston (parking off High Acre Road).

Plan your visit Help the house

Coley House Restoration Sponsors

Daniel E. Offutt, III Charitable Trust; 1772 Foundation; CT Humanities