In 1744, Matthew Keep purchased a house on Longmeadow Green which had originally been owned by Nathaniel Bliss. Matthew’s ancestors, John Keep and his family, had been killed by Indians while crossing from the “long meddowe” by Pecousic Brook to attend church services in Springfield in 1676. Longmeadow became a separate precinct from Springfield in 1713, the same year the earliest section of the Bliss-Keep House (now at the rear of the building) was built. The front section was completed in 1733.