This historic house located on the east side of State Rte. 147, north of Galway Village, is known as the Gere house built in 1793 by Isaac Gere IV, a 28 year old farmer from Groton, Conn. The front section was built first and contains an entrance hall, three living rooms, four bedrooms and three fireplaces. A center staircase winds to the third floor. The back section of the house was added in the late 1800’s, and includes a dining room with French doors made with diamond shape panes, a large stone fireplace with a stained glass window in the center and benches built in on either side. A kitchen with two pantries and two more bedrooms, one containing another stone fireplace was also part of the back section.

Issac Gere IV became a prominent figure in early Galway, Supervisor in 1803, member of the State Assembly 1816 and 1824, and State Senator from 1830 to 1833. He and his wife Deborah had a total of ten children.

In the early 1900’s Judge Irving W. Wiswall lived in this house. His desk was in the room at the top of the open stairs where he could look down and see visitors being ushered in.

Through the years the house was passed through several owners. Around 1963 the (at the time) owner J.W.F. Collins traced it’s ownership through no less than seventeen owners and several bank foreclosures. Collins did some restoration during this time of ownership, as did Bruce and Audrey Wemple later on. During the early thirties, the house and farm were known as the Harvey place. The current owners of the Gere Houser are Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Gordon.

Until at least the early forties, there was a wrap around porch, in part supported by stone columns, on the west and south sides of the original section. The windows on the gable ends of the third floor, with the unique diamond shape glass panes, and crowned with an elegant design in sculptured wood really make this house a standout in modern times.