The President Chester A. Arthur State Historic Site was the first historic site owned by the State of Vermont. With great fanfare, the granite monument marking what was believed to have been the site of Chester A. Arthur’s birth was dedicated in 1903 on land granted to the State of Vermont by Peter Bent Brigham Northrop. Fifty years later, in 1953, the state oversaw reconstruction of the birthplace using old photographs of the house as a guide. Research has ultimately proven this site was not the location of Arthur’s birth and the true location of his birth is passionately debated. The discrepancy may possibly have been created by Chester Arthur himself, who reduced the date of his birth by one year. Indeed, the house depicted in the photographs and reconstructed in 1953 was the second Vermont home of the future president.
In 1970, the North Fairfield Baptist Church was donated to the State of Vermont, through the efforts of Consuelo Northrop Bailey, by the Vermont Baptist State Convention. The present old brick church was constructed c. 1840, replacing the building where Reverend William Arthur preached. Father of President Chester A. Arthur, William Arthur was an ordained Baptist minister and North Fairfield’s 46-member congregation was his first posting.