The Elijah Burt House is located south of the center of East Longmeadow, on the north side of Chestnut Street roughly midway between Shaker Road and Prospect Street. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof, clapboard siding, and a central chimney. The main entrance is at the center of the front facade, flanked by pilasters, and topped by a corniced entablature.[2] Its interior retains original wide pine floors, fireplaces with beehive ovens, and gunstock posts in the corners. Part of the interior includes a secret passage that may have been used to shelter escaping slaves as part of the Underground Railroad.[3]
The house was built sometime between 1720 and 1740, and is believed to be the oldest house in East Longmeadow. It served in early days as a stop on stagecoach routes. In the years before the Civil War, an abolitionist owner is said to have harbored fugitive slaves in the basement, with a tunnel providing an escape into nearby woods.[3] The house underwent a Victorian update in the late 19th century, with a Queen Anne style porch with turned posts; most of these changes were reversed during 20th-century work to restore its 18th-century appearance.[2]
