Introduction

Standing prominently along North Main Street, this pale-yellow Victorian has been part of Kent’s village landscape for more than 150 years. Built in 1870, the house extends across an impressive 4,869 square feet, with a broad wraparound porch and a commanding façade that recalls a time when Main Street homes were designed to be noticed.

Inside, the scale of the house becomes even more apparent. Soaring ceilings rise above matching front parlors, while coffered ceilings, ornate fireplaces, decorative millwork and substantial moldings preserve the formality of the Victorian period. A grand dining room and traditional butler’s pantry speak to the gatherings once held here, yet the rooms feel warm and lived-in rather than museum-like.

For many years, the house belonged to Dolph and Audrey Traymon, the family behind Kent’s beloved Fife ’n Drum Restaurant & Inn. They raised their children here and later used several of its bedrooms as part of the inn, weaving the property into the town’s social and cultural life. The home’s setting remains just as compelling today: shops, restaurants and galleries are only steps from the front porch, while the land behind it opens toward farmland, the Housatonic River and the wooded hills beyond. It is a rare combination—a grand village house with a deeply personal history and the Connecticut countryside waiting just beyond its back door.

history

The story of 67 North Main Street begins during an important period of change in Kent. The town’s original center had been farther north in the area now known as Flanders, but the arrival of the railroad in the 1840s gradually drew businesses and civic activity toward the present village. By the time this house was built around 1870, North Main Street was becoming the new social and commercial spine of the community. (Kent Chamber of Commerce)

Published accounts and property records consistently date the residence to 1870, although the identity of its original owner, architect or builder has not been established in the publicly available sources reviewed. What its scale makes clear is that this was conceived as one of the village’s more substantial homes. Its large rooms, formal parlors and commanding position on Main Street belonged to a period when prosperous residences were built close to the center of town rather than hidden on distant country estates.

The best-documented chapter of the house began with Dolph and Audrey Traymon. The couple discovered Kent while Audrey was travelling through Connecticut for her work in the greeting-card business. After moving from Long Island, they opened the nearby Fife ’n Drum Restaurant at 53 Main Street on January 20, 1973. Dolph, a Juilliard-trained pianist with a long professional career, performed at the restaurant’s Steinway, while Audrey became its unmistakable hostess, often welcoming guests in one of her signature floor-length gowns. (Fife ’n Drum history, Audrey Traymon’s obituary)

The Victorian at 67 North Main became the Traymons’ family home. They raised their children here, and the residence remained closely connected to the restaurant as the Fife ’n Drum grew into one of Kent’s best-known institutions. Once the children were grown, three of the house’s six bedrooms were incorporated into the inn, giving part of the private residence a new role in the family’s hospitality business. For a time, the boundaries between home, inn and restaurant were gently intertwined. (News-Times property history)

Dolph continued playing for diners well into his nineties and died in 2016. Audrey remained in her Kent home until her death in 2019. Their long tenure left the house with something more personal than a list of architectural dates: it became part of the story of a family whose music, hospitality and presence helped shape Kent’s modern cultural life.

The property was placed on the market in 2020 and sold in December 2021. Its survival is especially meaningful because several of Kent’s other large nineteenth-century village houses were demolished over the years. Today, 67 North Main Street remains one of the last grand Victorians still anchoring the village—a railroad-era residence remembered not only for its age, but also for the family life and local institution that grew around it.