The Comfort Starr House, located at 138 State St., Guilford, Connecticut

Guilford, Connecticut

Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the coast. The population was 21,398 at the 2000 census...

, is a classic saltbox

Saltbox

A saltbox is a building with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back, generally a wooden frame house. A saltbox has just one story in the back and two stories in the front...

 house with an added leanto . It is presumed that the original house was built between 1645 and 1646. The house derives its name from Comfort Starr who bought the house from the original builder, a Guilford signer (settler), Henry Kingsnorth, in 1694. Comfort Starr's ancestor was an English physician of the same name who left County Kent and settled in Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, where he was a founder of Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

. He is buried in King's Chapel Burying Ground

King's Chapel Burying Ground

King's Chapel Burying Ground is a historic cemetery at King's Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest cemetery in the city and is a site on the Freedom Trail....

 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. A branch of the family settled in Connecticut in the 17th century.
The house is still in its primitive state. It is considered, by some, to be the oldest wooden timber frame house still used as a private residence in the U.S. today .