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The Old Indian House, built by Ensign John Sheldon in 1699, takes its name from the 1704 Deerfield Raid carried out by French and Indian forces from Canada. The house was one of those to survive the attack, but was taken down by the owners in 1848. A move to save the house, now believed to be one of America's first efforts to save an old house, failed in 1847 when the committee was unable to raise the needed money. When the house came down, the door with its hatchet scars and a number of other interesting small pieces of the house were saved. Until Memorial Hall opened in 1880, where the door could be kept as the Museum's most valued piece, it had its own group of caretakers and was, for a time, on view in one of Deerfield's hotels. One of only 2 17th-century doors still around in this country, it has been on public display since 1868.

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