It was love at first site for Marianne and Jim Rothnie –as far as their 1816 farmhouse in Jaffrey is concerned.
“We weren’t even looking for a house,” Marianne Rothnie said. “But we drove in and saw the the house and the view, and that was it.”
While the home has stunning gardens, the Rothnies first saw the property in the winter.
“I can’t even really explain it why we loved it so much, but here we are,” Marianne Rothnie said.
The Rothnie family had long ties to the Monadnock region, including a former summer home on Silver Lake in Nelson, but by 2012, they were happily ensconced at their horse farm in South Carolina, with no plans to come back north.
“We still had close friends in Nelson and Keene, and we knew people all over the area, but I had decided I was done moving,” Marianne Rothnie said with a laugh.
The farmhouse on Dublin Road in Jaffrey is often called the “Shattuck Farm” or “Cutter Farm” by longtime residents after the old Jaffrey families who built the house and farmed the land. The property has a stunning view of Mount Monadnock to the west, and looks over wetlands and forest to the east.
“We don’t know all that much about the house, but we do know the property has only been owned by a few different families in over 200 years,” Jim Rothnie said.
In 1946, the house changed hands, and the new owners built a tiny cabin to the east of the main farmhouse to live in while they added on and renovated the farmhouse.
“The cabin is probably less than 900 square feet, and the whole family lived in there for about a year,” Jim Rothnie said. “It used to have an outhouse out back, and it still has a wood stove which was manufactured in Jaffrey.”
The previous owners also built a small dairy barn across the driveway from the main house and cabin, where they kept cows and draft horses.
The Rothnies bought the home from descendants of the 1946 owners. They know the house was added on to several times, most recently in about 2005.
“The house had been beautifully kept up; all we really had to do was some interior paint,” Jim Rothnie said.
The couple made a few small additions including a large picture window in the living room to frame the Monadnock view, and a renovation of the kitchen.
The oldest part of the house, including the living room, foyer and dining room, dates back to about 1816. The wood-paneled dining room contains the original fireplace, complete with iron hooks for cooking.
The formal front entry way, which spans the width of the house, features both a front door and a rare Dutch back door.
“We love to leave this open on hot days to let the air through,” Jim Rothnie said.
Most of the art hanging in the home was painted by Jim Rothnie, an accomplished watercolorist. Colorful landscapes and family portraits fill the walls.
While the Rothnies have not changed much inside the antique home, they have added numerous features outside, including an outdoor shower tucked into the corner of the foundation of the farm’s original barn. Jim Rothnie said Marianne Rothnie got the idea after she saw a photo of an outdoor shower with stone walls in a magazine.
“We had all the stones right here, and it was just the perfect spot,” he said.
The outdoor shower was constructed by Jaffrey stone mason John Given.
The shower and the garden surrounding it are accessed by an original stone staircase in another corner of the foundation.
“The staircase was here, and there was just one post left and we added the railing,” Jim Rothnie said.
Other new features on the property include a horse barn and paddock, but the Rothnie’s favorite addition is the spring-fed pond in the northwest corner of their 83 acres.
“We had originally envisioned the pond somewhere else, but this is where the spring was,” Jim Rothnie said. “We had an engineer come in with an auger and test a bunch of spots, and three hours after we dug the hole, it was overflowing with water.”
He credits Cody Gordon of Gordon Services Property Management in Jaffrey with organizing the entire pond project, including digging the pond with heavy equipment. When Gordon hit ledge on the north side of the pond, he incorporated it into the design, giving the pond a pool-like feel.
“Cody has a great sense of design and how it would look. He used the rocks from the bottom around the edges,” Jim Rothnie said.
According to the Rothnies, the pond level stays high even during dry periods.
“The spring comes down from the mountain, so there is always pressure. Even in a drought, it’s still pretty deep,” Jim Rothnie said.
Marianne Rothnie said the family swims in the pond regularly.
“In the summer, the whole family comes and everyone loves it,” she said. “We swim in it all the time.”
The couple has made other additions to the grounds, including a pickleball court and a shaded “martini garden,” where the Rothnies and their friends escape the summer heat.
Along with extensive perennial borders on the front and back lawns, the gardens include fruit trees, a vegetable garden and berry bushes.
“Last year we had 200 peaches, and I love coming down here to pick blueberries for breakfast,” Marianne Rothnie said.
Professional gardener Sarah Bulson works in the Rothnie gardens one day a week.
“She does everything, including the heavy stuff, serious work, and we’re so lucky to have her,” Marianne Rothnie said.
The house was recently featured on the Jaffrey garden tour, and the Rothnies enjoy hosting events and fundraisers.
“We just love sharing this place,” Marianne Rothnie said.
