The Barrett House (circa 1800), also known as Forest Hall, is a
Federal style
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
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.
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
''The Europeans: A sketch'' is a short novel by Henry James, published in 1878. It is essentially a comedy contrasting the behaviour and attitudes of two visitors from Europe with those of their relatives living in the "new" world of New England ...
''.
See also
*
New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 137: Barrett House
References
External links
Historic New England website information
{{NRHP in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Houses completed in 1800
Historic house museums in New Hampshire
Museums in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Houses in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Historic district contributing properties in New Hampshire
Historic New England
New Ipswich, New Hampshire
National Register of Historic Places in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire