The Slipper House | Hamilton Town Hall

John Slipper bought a three-story home on the south side of Maple Street, a block or so west of John’s Hardware store. Fred Slipper, in turn, bought a house that stood down by the river at the original town site. When Fred and Gertrude( Fred’s new wife), returned from their honeymoon, they found that to their surprise while they were gone, fred’s brother John had put their house on log rollers and moved it up with teams of horses to a spot next to his home to the west, where it still stands as the Hamilton Town Hall and Museum. Their in-laws, the Sprinkles, lived on the north side of Maple, across the street. John and Fred also added a fireplace to the home after the honeymooners returned.

In 1990 floodwaters made it up far enough to flood out the two “little houses” next door and federal FEMA agency bought those homes along with others on Maple and Fred’s old childhood home. The city bought the house for $1 with the provision that the house would be jacked up four feet and put on a cement-block foundation. A ramp had also been added for wheelchair access and at that time it was turned into a museum and later also became the Town Hall. Photos that have been collected are displayed on the walls of the old living room, dining room and parlor. Fred’s old bedroom is a storeroom now, packed to the walls with old furniture and antiques. The bathroom off of his old room was a much later add-on; when Fred was growing up, the privy was out back next to the windmill that was the family’s original source of water.