From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
The Hamilton House, So. Berwick, Maine; Built in 1787-8 by Col. Jonathon Hamilton
A view of the Hamilton House in South Berwick, Maine. "The Jonathan Hamilton House, also known as the Hamilton House, is a historic house at 40 Vaughan's Lane in South Berwick, Maine. Built between 1787 and 1788 by a merchant from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this National Historic Landmark is a little-altered and high quality late Georgian country house. Acquired by preservationist friends of South Berwick native Sarah Orne Jewett at the turn of the 20th century, it is now a historic house museum owned by Historic New England, open for tours between June and October. The Hamilton House is set on 50 acres (20 ha) of land overlooking the Salmon Falls River, the border between South Berwick and Rollinsford, New Hampshire. It is a 2+1/2-story wood-frame building, with a hip roof, clapboard siding, four brick chimneys symmetrically placed in its outside walls, and gabled dormers on all four elevations. It has entrances on its north, south, and east sides, each flanked by pilasters and topped by a gabled pediment; that on the north side has a more elaborate treatment, with sidelight windows and a second pair of pilasters. On the north and east facades, there are Palladian windows above the entrances. When the Goodwins put the property up for sale in 1898, local author Sarah Orne Jewett convinced her friend Emily Tyson, and Tyson's stepdaughter Elise, to purchase and restore the house in the then-fashionable Colonial Revival. The Tysons made only modest alterations to the house, and restored some of its fabric, including the wallpaper in the central hall. Their most significant changes were outside, where they built the handsome garden and cottage (the latter now serving as a visitor center) south of the house. After the death of Elise Tyson Vaughan in 1949, the house was bequeathed to the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. It is now operated by them as a historic house museum, with tours offered between June and October. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Isabella Stewart Gardner owned a copy of The Tory Lover, a historical romance novel by Jewett, that has an inscription indicating that Hamilton House was the setting for the novel." -- "Hamilton House (South Berwick, Maine)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hamilton_House_(South_Berwick,_Maine)&oldid=1090656475
