The Bayley-Hazen Road was the first road built through northern Vermont, as part of American military plans for the taking of the British Province of Quebec in the American Revolutionary War. These plans were never realized, but the road (which was built to Hazen's Notch in Westfield) opened the area to settlement. Jonathan Elkins, a native of Haverhill, New Hampshire, arrived in what is now Peacham, and built a log cabin in 1775. The road was built later in the 1770s, passing by his cabin. He built this house in 1787, which also served as a tavern for passing travelers. The old road was eventually bypassed by the present alignment of South Main Street to the west.