The Willard Homestead is a historic house on Sunset Hill Road in
Harrisville, New Hampshire
Harrisville is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. Besides the town center, it also includes the villages of Chesham and Eastview. The population of the town was 984 at the 2020 census.
Harrisville is a unique, preserved 19th ...
. Built about 1787 and enlarged several times, it is notable as representing both the town's early settlement history, and its summer resort period of the early 20th century. The house 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 1988.
Description and history
The Willard Homestead stands in a rural area of western Harrisville, west of the junction of Sunset Hill Road and Monadnock Road. The main house is a rambling structure with a central -story frame section flanked by similarly sized wings. A two-story addition in the 1880s gave the house a T shape. It was converted into a summer residence in 1900, adding the front porch, dormers, and garage. The property also includes a barn, which is believed to date to the 18th century, and horse sheds that were converted to residential use as a guest house.
The oldest portion of this -story Cape style house was built c. 1787, and was for many years in the hands of the Willard family. Its first owner, Elijah Willard, served as pastor of the local Baptist church. It was enlarged in the 1880s, and in 1900 it was purchased by
Wellington Wells, a state senator from
, as a summer residence. Wells' guests included
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
associate justice
David J. Brewer
David Josiah Brewer (June 20, 1837 – March 28, 1910) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1890 to 1910. An appointee of President Benjamin Harrison, he supported states' rig ...
.
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See also
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References
{{NRHP in Cheshire County, New Hampshire
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire
Houses completed in 1787
Houses in Harrisville, New Hampshire
1787 establishments in New Hampshire
National Register of Historic Places in Cheshire County, New Hampshire