A historic home in Portsmouth will be spared the wrecking ball.
That's thanks to an agreement between the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the Shoals Marine Lab.
NHPR Correspondent Doug MacPherson reports.
"Perfect" is the word both sides use to describe the partnership that has apparently spared the life of Creek Farm Cottage. This week the Forest Society announced it has signed a 50-year lease with the Shoals Marine Lab, which will use Creek Farm as its mainland base.
At times, the 120-year-old home appeared doomed.
When the previous owner set out to convey the 35-acre property to the Forest Society, she stipulated that the house should be torn down after her death. The Forest Society had no interest in trying to keep up the house, and the owner didn't want it to slowly rot away.
Jameson French, former chair of the Forest Society's board of directors, says the organization didn't understand the home's significance:
Creek Farm Cottage.
"There was some knowledge about it, but a lot less than perhaps there should have been. After the land protection began to occur, more and more people became – we all became – much more aware of the deep historic significance of the house."
Arthur Astor Carey, a descendent of one of America's wealthiest families, built the house in 1887. The architect was Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, a nephew of the famous poet. Creek Farm is perhaps the best surviving example of the so-called "summer cottages" built along New Hampshire's Seacoast by Boston Brahmins who saw themselves as keepers of artistic and literary culture. The home's design is simple and elegant, featuring a large gambrel roof and broad front porches.
Public outcry erupted over the building's impending demise. So the Forest Society went back to the owner and negotiated a new deal. After her death, they would have two years to try to find a suitable new use for the home. The Society's Paul Doscher says it was hard to find a use that wouldn't interfere with the Society's plans to open the grounds to the public:
"We had to write-off a whole series of potential uses that an old building could be put to, such as a leased mansion for someone who had lots of money, a private conference center, a bed and breakfast, a hotel – all those activities really weren’t compatible with the context of this building. So it was a challenge."
The previous owner, Lillian Noel, died almost exactly two years ago. As the clock wound down, the Shoals Marine Lab became interested in the house as a year-round base for its summer program on Appledore Island. And, according to lab director Willy Bemis, as a place where students and faculty can live and pursue new courses in marine biology:
"It presents us a sequence of habitats that we don’t have access to on Appledore Island. For example, if you come in the driveway, you’ll see that there’s fresh water pond up at the top of the property. There’s very lovely woods coming down to mud flats on the shore. At Appledore, we have probably the best rocky inter-tidal exposures you could ever hope for at any marine lab. It’s a wonderful place to study rocky inter-tidal habitats. But we have no mud flats."
Creek Farm Cottage, 1912. Courtesy of Portsmouth Athenaeum.
The lab is bound by the lease not to modify the exterior of the building. Shoals officials say they'll need to raise at least half a million dollars to renovate the house and meet current safety codes.
But for now, the home's survival is cause for celebration by Portsmouth preservationists. State Senator Martha Fuller Clark of Portsmouth says she hopes the effort that saved Creek Farm Cottage will serve as a model:
"As we continue to move ahead in wanting to protect all the cultural, and historic, and the natural resources in the state of new Hampshire, I think more and more we’re going to see that there’s going to have to be partnering and collaboration between those people who are interested in the preservation of land, particularly open space, and also those of us who are interested in historic preservation."
For their part, Forest Society officials say they're convinced of the value of good partnerships to achieve the combined goals of conserving land and preserving historic buildings.
Another key ingredient, they say, is patience.
For NHPR News, I'm Doug MacPherson.
