Burdick House

Land deed records date the Burdick family’s long association with New Philadelphia to at least 1846, when Spaulding Burdick purchased property in the town from Frank McWorter. Burdick is recorded in the 1850 federal census as a 63 year old shoemaker born in Rhode Island.

Property records also indicate that Virgil Burdick, a descendant of Abel Burdick, a very distant cousin of Spaulding Burdick, purchased Lots 3, 4, 5 and 6 on Block 19 in 1921. A house had been on the property continuously since the 1860s.

In his 1992 account, New Philadelphia: Where I Lived, Virgil’s son, Larry, recalled growing up in an original dwelling on the property: “The original part of the house stood on limestone rocks for a foundation. In the winter the wind sifted between the rocks chilled the floors enough to make your teeth chatter.” Virgil built a new house to replace the original house in 1941. This is the house that stands today.

The Burdick family retained possession of the property until 2005 when the New Philadelphia Association purchased the land and house and renovated the dwelling, which is now under the management of the National Park Service and not currently open to the public.