The Oliver Whiting Homestead is a historic farmstead on Old County Farm Road in

Wilton, New Hampshire Wilton is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,896 at the 2020 census. Like many small New England towns, it grew up around water-powered textile mills, but is now a rural bedroom community with some m ...

, just south of the County Farm Bridge. The property was one of the region's largest dairy farms in the early 19th century, and it was used as Hillsborough County's

poor farm A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run (usually by a county or municipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy. Workhouses In England, Wales and Ireland (but not in Scotland), ‘workhouse’ has been the ...

between 1867 and 1896. The main focus of the property is a large

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 ...

brick house built c. 1800 by Oliver Whiting; it also has an 1846

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

barn which predates the establishment of the poor farm. The property was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982.

Description and history

The Whiting family was one of the wealthiest in the neighboring town of

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

, when Lt. Oliver Whiting Jr. was married in 1800. It is believed that the main house on this property was built soon thereafter; its fine period details, which were uncommon in what was then a largely rural community, were probably the result of design influences brought in from other areas by the Whitings. The Whiting farm became the centerpiece of a dairy operation that was by the 1850s the largest in Wilton. Oliver's son David purchased an operation in 1857 that included a daily railroad run to Boston, Massachusetts, carrying fresh milk. The barn, with its Gothic Revival

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

, was built by the Whitings in 1846, and is a good example of a

bank barn A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill, or bank, both the upper and the lower floors area could be accessed from ground level, one are ...

, with entrances on two levels. The property was purchased by Hillsborough County in 1867, and adapted for use as a poor farm. A number of buildings were added during this period of the property's history, including a multistory

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

, water supply infrastructure, and a "

pest house A pest house, plague house, pesthouse or fever shed was a type of building used for persons afflicted with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox or typhus. Often used for forcible quarantine, many towns and cities had on ...

", a structure built out of recycled building materials located at a remove from the main building complex. Only foundations of most of these features now survive, since they were dismantled after the poor farm's closure in 1896. In the early 20th century the property was transformed into a

summer estate A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden ...

by the Beebe family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, Oliver, Homestead Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Federal architecture in New Hampshire Gothic Revival architecture in New Hampshire Houses completed in 1800 Houses in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Wilton, New Hampshire

Description and history

See also

References