Around 1800, Thomas Crook purchased one thousand acres in Corinth, selecting this prime site on the eastern slope of Taplin Hill above Waits River for his farm. After a number of years in a small wood-frame Cape, he built this stylish two-story brick I-house. With a one-story brick kitchen ell at the rear attached to a wood-frame working ell and a small English barn, it forms a prime example of the connected-building arrangement then becoming popular on farms throughout eastern Vermont. Built in a high-quality Flemish bond, unusual east of the Green Mountains, the house's focal point is the formal entrance, with a wide door and half-length sidelights capped by a carved fan in a shallow semielliptical arch. The house's relative sophistication, and that of other fine brick houses in Corinth, is a reflection of the Federal-style masonry then reaching its peak in neighboring Bradford. After the Civil War a new owner added a long, gabled bank barn at the east end of the buildings, preserving and extending the connected-building arrangement.
Crook House
c. 1820. Taplin Hill Rd. at Hayward Rd.