
Just this past MLK weekend, my husband Greg and I were invited to good friends of ours family vacation house in the blip of a village: Surry, New Hampshire. My friend had been inviting me for a few years and it had never worked out. The retreat has been lovingly used by an extended family for over 50 years and now they are thinking of selling. It was purchased in 1973 by her grandparents.




The two main things that are unique about this house are:
1. Few alterations or renovations over the centuries
2. Rufus Porter murals in its parlor.
The family of aunts, uncles and cousins has been celebrating Thanksgiving up here for many years--and has been known to faithfully use an early 20th century oven to cook a 20lb turkey. This requires a couple of brave souls to start the wood fire in the oven at 5 A.M.

Honestly, I could write about this house for hours. One of my goals, however, is to have more frequent but shorter posts. Hmmm....Anyway, la piece de la resistance of this colonial-era home is its Rufus Porter (1792-1884) parlor murals. Certified by the Whitney Museum of Art, these murals were painstakingly restored by experts when they were found under a layer (or layers) of wallpaper in the 20th century.
From an article in The Keene Sentinel by Amara Cunningham from March 2004, "In Surry, two walls in a 1776 house are covered with a story. This house, which was Robert Likins' house when Porter was painting in New England, tells a story of a traveling muralist who stayed for a couple of weeks and adorned a room with designs of trees and marsh plants."
It is possible this article refers to this very house but more research needs to be done.

Porter was the quintessential "jack-of-all trades" nineteenth-century Yankee man, lived everywhere, was an inventor and also started Scientific American magazine. His biography makes it sound like he was super intelligent, curious, artistic, and had ADD, "His brain was an overflowing fountain of new ideas and active projects." (from his 1886 obituary)


I am so grateful to be invited to a place like this, to see and live in a relatively undisturbed 18th century private home while drinking beers and playing board games with friends.
Next weekend, before I forget, I will post more pictures about this wonderful New Hampshire home that has seen so much! Hopefully I can figure out who lived there.
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