The Peterborough Heritage Commission, an official town committee dedicated to preserving local history, hosted a presentation Thursday at the Peterborough Town House on the restoration of the George S. and Jane McCrillis House at 181 Grove St.
The house, just before the bridge over the Contoocook River north of RiverMead, stands on land long inhabited by the Abenaki, Pennacook and Wabanaki peoples, who lived in the Contoocook Valley for an estimated 12,000 years before European settlement.
The McCrillis House, which had been unoccupied for eight years, was completely restored by the current owners, Edward Cardoza and Albert Cummings, who bought the property in 2022.
After sitting vacant for eight years, the 1826 home was purchased in 2022 and fully restored by current owners Edward Cardoza and Albert Cummings. Cardoza, an Episcopal priest and former chief steward of the 189 historic churches of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, and Cummings, a retired preservation carpenter, drew on deep experience with antique buildings.
After COVID, Cummings and Cardoza decided they wanted to get out of the Boston suburbs, and began looking at houses listed on a Facebook page for historic homes under $200,000.
“We spent every weekend driving all over Western Mass and New Hampshire looking at houses,” Cardoza said.
Cardoza, a Boston native, said he had always been familiar with Peterborough, as he had hiked Mt. Monadnock many times as a Boy Scout.
“My parents also loved the Peterborough Basket Company,” he said.
Cardoza and Cummings first saw the McCrillis house “in a snowstorm,” but were immediately taken with the property.
“We knew we were in trouble before we even went in it,” Cardoza said.
Cardoza recalled that the realtor who showed the couple the house stayed in the car, because she thought the house was “creepy.”
“Al and I were in the house for two and a half hours, and the realtor kept calling to see if we were okay,” Cardoza recalled.
In that first visit, Cardoza and Cummings investigated the house from the foundation to the attic, and were amazed by what they found.
“We were very fortunate that in historic preservation terms, this house was what we call ‘unmuddled.’ Nothing has happened to this house. All the hardware was there, all the windows were there, all of the trim was there — it was untouched. It was in really bad shape, but it was untouched,” Cardoza said.
Cardoza said it is “remarkable” that in the eight years the house stood empty, not a single window was broken, and the house was not vandalized.
As they began restoring the home, Cardoza and Cummings researched the history of the building and learned it had been built by George McCrillis, a blacksmith, and his wife, Jane, in 1826.
It changed hands several times in the 19th century, became the Waite family home in 1904 and the area became known as Waite’s Corner. The Waite family owned it until 2015, when RiverMead purchased it and it became vacant.
Cardoza credits Rivermead and the Town of Peterborough with having faith in his and Cumming’s ability to restore the home, which needed to be rebuilt from the basement to the roof.
“We could not have done this project without Rivermead,” Cardoza said. “We love being near Rivermead. Everyone stops by, and everyone wants to know what is going on with the house. It is like having a whole bunch of supportive grandparents right next door.”
In his research, Cardoza uncovered previously unknown history about the house, including evidence that it may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Deacon Thomas Wilson, who lived in the house before the Civil War, was associated with the Cheney family, who were known abolitionists and whose Peterborough home was a documented stop on the Underground Railroad. The Cheneys also brought African American activist Frederick Douglass to Peterborough.
Dolly Flynn, the granddaughter of Fred and Grace Waite, who now lives in Florida, told Cardoza that “the house was always a safe place for African- American people.”
“She told the story of how her grandmother would hang a light and a scarf on the railroad line (now the bike path) behind the house to signify that it was a place to get a warm meal and a bed,” Cardoza said.
Cardoza also learned that Edward and Marian MacDowell had rented the house from the Kimball family in the late 1800s.
“We found confirmation in Marian’s diaries that she had stayed here,” Cardoza said. “She described the house “a lovely soft gray in color.”
Cardoza and Cummings learned that the house at one point had been bright mustard yellow in color, and have restored the house to the historic shade of yellow.
Cardoza has documented the restoration process of the house in the George S. McCrillis Facebook group.
The Peterborough Heritage Commission is looking for volunteers interested in the town’s architectural and social history. For information, visit peterboroughnh.gov/government/boards_and_committees/heritage_commission/index.php or contact Doug Ward at douglasmward8@gmail.com.