Dennison & Lydia Wood House

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3-story Federal-style dwelling completed in 1819 (2 floors at the time). Built for Captain Dennison Wood and his wife Lydia. Dennison Wood was a sailor who was captain of the brig Levant in 1819, the year he purchased the lot on Spring Street and constructed the house.

Upon his death, apparently in 1846, Wood had fallen on hard times. That year creditors auctioned off the house but the family, unwilling to have Lydia removed from her home, pooled their money to save the house. Son-in-law Samuel C. Brown, a merchant, purchased the house and the following year transferred it to a trust of family members all of whom contributed funds.

The third floor was added in 1847, along with a storefront on the ground level. The address was also renumbered to 310 Spring Street from its original 282. Lydia Wood died in 1873 at the age of 86 years old, bringing to a close 54 years of Wood family residency at No. 310 Spring Street.

In 1875 Courtney’s drygoods store (which had operated in the ground-level storefront since 1869) caught fire, damaging the building and wiping out most of the merchant’s inventory. The present-day storefront was installed during the repairs. In 1897, Thomas Courtney purchased the building, renting out the upper floors to boarders.

When Thomas Courtney died in 1947, the business closed, and the building was sold again. The new owners rented the commercial space to a neon sign company, while the upper floors continued to be residential. The building changed hands again in 1967, and again in 1998, when it was bought by Unity Environmental Corp.