Barrett House (New Ipswich, New Hampshire)

Last updated

Barrett House
Barrett House (front view) - New Ipswich, New Hampshire.JPG
A front view of Barrett House
USA New Hampshire location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location New Ipswich, New Hampshire
Coordinates 42°45′12″N71°51′23″W / 42.75333°N 71.85639°W / 42.75333; -71.85639
Builtc. 1800
Architectural style Federal
Part of New Ipswich Center Village Historic District (ID91001173)
Designated CPSeptember 3, 1991

The Barrett House (circa 1800), also known as Forest Hall, is a Federal style American mansion located in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, part of the New Ipswich Center Village Historic District. It is now a nonprofit museum operated by Historic New England and open to the public several days a year. An admission fee is charged.

Contents

The summerhouse at the top of the allee Barrett House (summerhouse) - New Ipswich, New Hampshire.JPG
The summerhouse at the top of the allée

History

According to tradition, Forest Hall was built as a wedding gift for Charles Barrett and his bride by his father, a prosperous farmer in town who had invested in a glass factory, a toll road, a canal system, and, most successfully, in New Hampshire's first cotton mill. The interiors are elegantly furnished, and numerous reception rooms were designed for entertaining in a cosmopolitan manner. An elaborate allée was later added to the landscape, with a flight of stone steps flanked by maples rising up the hillside behind the house and leading to an elegant summerhouse.

However, after the railroad bypassed New Ipswich, the town entered into a decline. Charles Barrett's descendants stayed on, but today Forest Hall remains essentially a relic of the Federal era. After 1887, the family used the house only in the summer-time. It was donated to Historic New England in 1950.

Barrett House was one of the filming locations for the 1979 Merchant Ivory Productions film adaptation of the Henry James novel entitled The Europeans . [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suffolk</span> County of England

Suffolk is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. The largest settlement is Ipswich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portsmouth, New Hampshire</span> City in Rockingham County, New Hampshire

Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmouth was formerly the home of the Strategic Air Command's Pease Air Force Base, since converted to Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ipswich</span> Town and borough in England

Ipswich is a county town and borough in Suffolk, England. It is in East Anglia, about 10 miles (16 km) away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Ipswich, New Hampshire</span> Town in New Hampshire, United States

New Ipswich is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,204 at the 2020 census. New Ipswich, situated on the Massachusetts border, includes the villages of Bank, Davis, Gibson Four Corners, Highbridge, New Ipswich Center, Smithville, and Wilder, though these village designations no longer hold the importance they did in the past. The Wapack Trail passes through the community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claremont, New Hampshire</span> City in New Hampshire, United States

Claremont is the only city in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 12,949 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lymington</span> Seaside town in Hampshire, England

Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyndhurst, Hampshire</span> Human settlement in England

Lyndhurst is a large village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. Serving as the administrative capital of the New Forest, it is a popular tourist attraction, with many independent shops, art galleries, cafés, museums, pubs and hotels. The nearest city is Southampton, about nine miles (14 km) to the north-east. As of 2001 Lyndhurst had a population of 2,973, increasing to 3,029 at the 2011 Census. The name derives from an Old English name, comprising the words lind and hyrst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asher Benjamin</span> American architect

Asher Benjamin was an American architect and author whose work transitioned between Federal architecture and the later Greek Revival architecture. His seven handbooks on design deeply influenced the look of cities and towns throughout New England until the Civil War. Builders also copied his plans in the Midwest and in the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles H. Bell (politician)</span> American politician

Charles Henry Bell was an American lawyer and Republican politician from Exeter, New Hampshire. Bell served New Hampshire in both the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the New Hampshire Senate, as a U.S. Senator, and as the 38th governor of New Hampshire.

<i>The Europeans</i> (1979 film) 1979 film based on the Henry James novel directed by James Ivory

The Europeans is a 1979 British Merchant Ivory film, directed by James Ivory, produced by Ismail Merchant, and with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, based on Henry James's novel The Europeans (1878). It stars Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Tim Woodward and Lisa Eichhorn. It was the first of Merchant Ivory's triptych of Henry James adaptations. It was followed by The Bostonians in 1984 and The Golden Bowl in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwood Farm (Ipswich, Massachusetts)</span> Historic farm in Massachusetts, United States

Greenwood Farm is a historic property and nature reserve located in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and owned by The Trustees of Reservations. The farm is 216 acres of gardens, pastures, meadows, woodlands and salt marsh and it features the PaineHouse, a First Period farmhouse constructed in 1694.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literary Hall</span> A mid-19th-century library and museum in Romney, West Virginia

Literary Hall is a mid-19th-century brick library, building and museum located in Romney, a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the intersection of North High Street and West Main Street. Literary Hall was constructed between 1869 and 1870 by the Romney Literary Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emery Down</span> Human settlement in England

Emery Down is a small village in the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Lyndhurst, which lies approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 km) south-east from the village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambert Packard</span> American architect

Lambert Packard (1832-1906) was an American architect from St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

Brightwen Binyon, FRIBA, was a British architect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Ipswich Center Village Historic District</span> Historic district in New Hampshire, United States

The New Ipswich Center Village Historic District encompasses the historic center of the rural town of New Ipswich, New Hampshire. The center village is the town's most densely populated area, with a history dating to the town's founding in 1735. The district extends along Turnpike Road between King and Porter Roads, and southward in a roughly triangular shape, the southern point of which is at the junction of Main Street and Willard Road. The village includes a large number of residences, which were mainly agricultural at first, but also include a number of properties built as summer resort houses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also includes most of the town's historic civic buildings, including its historic town hall, and the Barrett House, now a museum property owned by Historic New England. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Ipswich Town Hall</span> United States historic place

The New Ipswich Town Hall is a historic academic and civic building on Main Street in the center village of New Ipswich, New Hampshire. The 1+12-story wood-frame structure was built in 1817 to serve the dual purpose of providing a town meeting place, and to provide space for a private academy. The building has been little altered since 1869, when it was substantially reconfigured solely for town use. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literature of New England</span>

The literature of New England has had an enduring influence on American literature in general, with themes such as religion, race, the individual versus society, social repression, and nature, emblematic of the larger concerns of American letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufus Sargent</span> American architect

Rufus Sargent (1812-1886) was an American architect practicing in Newburyport, Massachusetts during the nineteenth century.

References

  1. "The Europeans (1979) - IMDb".