Captain Thaddeus Tuttle had Grasse Mount built in 1804 at 411 Main Street in Burlington, where it now serves the University of Vermont. Built in 1804 for Captain Thaddeus Tuttle (1758–1836), this house was drawn by architect and surveyor John Johnson and raised by carpenter Abram Stevens. You can feel the layers of ownership and story in its walls: by 1824 Tuttle had lost his fortune and sold the property to Vermont Governor Cornelius Van Ness.
The name Grasse Mount honors French Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse, and the house was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1973. Before Tuttle, the estate land belonged to Ira Allen, an officer in the Green Mountain Boys under his brother Ethan Allen and a founder of the University of Vermont. Allen claimed he was swindled out of the land by Tuttle while Allen was abroad negotiating trade with England and buying arms from France at the behest of Governor Thomas Chittenden — a trip delayed for some eight years.
Your visit to this house recalls Ira Allen, who claimed Tuttle swindled him out of the land while he bought arms in France.