New owner sought for historic Darien home with links to George Washington and the Muppets

Preservationists and history lovers in Darien are working together with a real estate agent to find the perfect fit for a 300-year-old home up for sale.

News 12 Staff

Jan 5, 2021, 5:29 PM

Updated 1,399 days ago

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Preservationists and history lovers in Darien are working together with a real estate agent to find the perfect fit for a 300-year-old home up for sale.
The home at 2591 Boston Post Road has not changed much since it was built.
"It has stood through a Revolutionary War, a Civil War, and everything our country has seen in 300 years," said Elizabeth Geiger with the Darien Architectural Review Board.
It's why Geiger and her sister Barb Hazelton, the listing agent on the home, are working to make sure its next owner wants to preserve its history.
"It was considered the halfway home between New York and Connecticut. George Washington had an ale here from time to time. It was a blacksmith shop and antique shop," said Hazelton.
Hazelton says it was owned for 200 years by the Weed family. They sold it to Tim Miller, supervisor of puppet design for the Muppets.
Miller left the property to a co-worker at the Jim Henson Company, James Wotjal. The New Jersey resident could have sold the property to anyone but knew that's not what the town or Miller would have wanted.
The home is on the National Registry of Historic Homes. There are no deed laws in Darien to keep the next owner from demolishing it, but Hazelton, Geiger and Wojtal are all working to find an owner who sees it as a historic landmark like they do.