HOUSE AND HOME: Living and learning in a historic house in Lyndeborough
Published: 01-17-2025 8:36 AM
Modified: 01-17-2025 12:05 PM |
Lisa Mitchell admits she is “totally obsessed” with the history of her house, Lyndeborough’s historic “Ship Captain’s House.”
The house on Johnson Corner Road in Lyndeborough is also called “The Big Stone House,” although, as Mitchell pointed out, it’s actually an arts and crafts-style, wood-frame house with fieldstone foundations and retaining walls.
“I swear, I feel like sometimes the house is speaking to me, like it’s revealing things to me,” Mitchell said. “So many incredible people have lived here – doctors, lawyers, politicians, a ship captain. I feel like it’s my job to be the one to tell the story of the house.”
Mitchell and her husband Scott were living in Wilton when they drove by the “For Sale” sign at the Ship Captain’s House in June 2022.
“We made an offer that day, and we moved in a month later,” Lisa Mitchell said. “Scott grew up in a similar arts and crafts-style home in Milford, and I’ve always loved history and old houses. I’m an archaeologist at heart.”
The house, originally called “Graceden,” was built by Alexander Fenton Bremner and Grace Pike Bremner. The Bremners gifted the house to their daughter Katherine when she married Blaylock Atherton. Katherine Bremner Atherton grew up spending summers just down the road at the Bremner family summer house. Blaylock Atherton was the son of British-born Ella Blaylock Atherton, who was the first female surgeon in New Hampshire.
“Ella was also known for her love of motorcycles; she had an Indian with a sidecar,” Mitchell said. “She was quite a character. Apparently she slept with a revolver under her pillow.”
Since moving in, Mitchell has compiled a timeline of the history of the house, including the names, dates and facts about everyone who has ever lived there, as well as notable visitors. She has a large collection of historic items she and her family have found on the grounds, including the original doorbell, a silver Tiffany spoon, an original key to the front door and an Indian Motorcycle logo.
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Mitchell believes that Ella Blaylock Atherton’s husband, Capt. Henry B. Atherton, a Civil War veteran, could be the reason the house is known as the Ship Captain’s House, although Atherton was not a naval captain. It may also have been named for Alexander Bremner, who was a ship’s engineer, or a resident named Mister Cramsie, who lived in the house in the 1950s.
“No one knows for sure who the actual ship captain was, but Mister Cramsie is the one in living memory, and he really was a ship captain,” Mitchell said.
Blaylock Atherton was a state senator, representing Nashua. The Athertons are descended from James Atherton, one of the first English settlers of New England, who came to Massachusetts in 1635.
“The family used this house as a summer house, primarily for entertaining,” Mitchell said. “The servants’ quarters were separate; they could entertain and the servants could stay out of sight.”
Mitchell pointed out that the house was built on a perfect east-west axis to allow the breeze to flow through. Upstairs, in a small room which is now a bathroom, interior windows open to the front hallway, allowing air to circulate. The house retains original architectural features, including stained glass windows, built-in book shelves, hardwood floors, knob-and-tube wiring, lighting fixtures, a massive fieldstone fireplace, a butler’s pantry and linen closets with built-in dressers and shelves. Previous residents retrofitted full baths into small rooms upstairs, as the home was built prior to indoor plumbing. The basement contains the original dug well, which still provides water to the household.
“It’s a little creepy looking, but it works. There’s my water pump right there,” Mitchell said on a tour of the basement.
Mitchell seems to have a story for every inch of the house, including the basement, which was once the workshop of an inventor who created an early version of the Roomba vacuum.
The Mitchells have completed the most-urgently needed repairs to the house, including shoring up the roof of the original carriage house, which is now a garage and separate apartment.
“I think a lot of people have lived in this house and thought, ‘I can fix this!’ but it’s a lot,” Mitchell said. “We are taking it one step at a time. Obviously, the structure has to come first. We’ll get to the siding and paint at some point.”
In the process of researching the history of the home, Mitchell has reached out extensively on social media and has been able to connect with members of the Blaylock family, including a granddaughter of Ella Blaylock. Many other former residents have gotten in touch, as well.
“One woman I spoke had no idea there were still hardwood floors, because when she lived here, it was all wall-to-wall carpeting,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was delighted to learn that Lyndeborough’s town historian, Jesse Salisbury, also lived in the house for a period in the 1970s.
“So many people have reached out or stopped by and helped me try to put together the history,” Mitchell said. “It is amazing how many people in town have ties to this house.”
Yet another story involves an Allard Lowenstein, a New York politician and supporter of John F. Kennedy who made one of his last speeches at the house, which was then owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Quinn Berger. Just a few days after speaking in Lyndeborough in 1980, Lowenstein was assassinated.
“So much happened here,” Mitchell said. “I just want to learn as much as I can, and write the story of this house.”
Mitchell encourages anyone with ties to the house to find her on Facebook.