At twenty six Church Street is the home of master carpenter Azariah Ketchum, one of the builders of the Old School Baptist Meeting House. This small Federal house was most likely built around 1810, when he was working on the church.
Azariah was born in Bedford, in nearby Westchester County. Azariah's family soon moved to a large farm on the old Warwick-Greenwood Lake Road. Ketchum served in the Revolution under Col. Hathorn. In 1781 he married Elizabeth Thorp, daughter of a neighboring farmer on Chuck's Hill. About this time, the Ketchums spent some years in New York City, Azariah probably working at his trade as a carpenter and house wright. They returned to Warwick in 1809. Experience in Manhattan would account for the style of this house, for there is no other example of the Federal period in the village, and perhaps the entire township, of Warwick. Azariah proudly built his little house, which has a floor plan similar to the typical Manhattan brownstone. It has two rooms one over the other, a hall, attic and a cellar. It has high ceilings, elaborate mantles and main doorway, and a graceful stair that is continuous to the attic. It was really very citified and 'new fangled' for Warwick in 1810!
The structure was rescued from disrepair and gradually returned to much of its original appearance by Mrs. Ray E. Bennett in the 1970's, with the help of the Society's revolving restoration fund. She added a compact wing to the rear, and which the last work of Henry Ten Kate, who had meticulously reconstructed the Sly Barn at the Shingle House.
After restoration work by John Burgess of Montgomery, Mrs. Bennett deeded the house to the Society with the provision for her use during her lifetime. The front step of the home is an old flat stone slab that was once a well cover, with the large circular hole for the bucket filled in to prevent accidents.
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