Historic homes, golf course and grange added to the NH State Register of Historic Places

The New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has announced that the State Historical Resources Council has added five properties to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. 

Of the three nearly identical houses built next to each other in the 1830s, the Fitch-Brown-Patten House is significant for its connections to the residential development of Claremont’s downtown. Designed with Greek Revival details and renovated in the 1930s in the Colonial Revival style, the house was donated by its last resident, Mary Patten, to the city in 1975 and is used by the Claremont Historical Society for displays, meeting space and as a research library.

Built circa 1820 in Hanover’s Etna Village, the Georgian-style Bridgman House may contain older elements from a previous building constructed on the site in 1767. Bridgman, who lost her ability to see and hear after contracting scarlet fever at the age of two, is considered one of the first deaf-blind persons to learn language when, at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, she learned a tactile alphabet that she later taught to fellow pupil Anne Sullivan, best known as Helen Keller’s teacher.

The William Peabody House was built by one of Milford’s earliest English settlers circa 1740 and was home to three generations of the family. The two-and-one-half story, Georgian Revival-style building has a center chimney and five working fireplaces, including one in the keeping room with a bake oven. Peabody’s son Stephen served in the Revolutionary War and his son, also named Stephen, was elected to the Governor’s Council three times. The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The Antrim Grange #98 first served Antrim Center as a meetinghouse for religious and civic purposes when it was completed circa 1791. After New Hampshire’s Toleration Act of 1819 mandated the separation of church and state, the town dismantled the building, relocated it, removed the second floor, rebuilt it and repurposed it as a town hall. When South Antrim became the town’s population center and a new brick town hall was built there in 1894, the building found new purpose as a grange hall.

Sunset Hill Golf Course and Clubhouse in Sugar Hill mark golf’s early years of popularity. The course was built in 1897 and is one of the first golf courses in New Hampshire; the clubhouse followed in 1900 and is a rare and significant example of clubhouse design and construction from the earliest era of golfing in the state. Originally amenities for the Sunset Hill House – one of the White Mountains’ grand hotels, demolished in 1973 – the nine-hole course and clubhouse are still open to the public.

Anyone wishing to nominate a property to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places must research the history of the nominated property and document it on an individual inventory form from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. Having a property listed in the Register does not impose restrictions on property owners. For more information, visit nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov.

New Hampshire's Division of Historical Resources, the State Historic Preservation Office, was established in 1974 and is part of the NH Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. NHDHR’s mission is to preserve and celebrate New Hampshire’s irreplaceable historic resources through programs and services that provide education, stewardship, and protection. For more information, visit us online at nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov or by calling 603-271-3483.

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