I was up in New Hampshire this past weekend for a spectacular summer wedding on Dublin Lake, and of course I made time for side trips; the Granite State continues to be a place of perpetual discovery for me after a lifetime of merely driving around or through it, to and from a succession of homes in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. On the day before the wedding, some friends and I drove north to see The Fells, the Lake Sunapee home of John Milton Hay (1838-1905), who served in the administrations of Presidents Lincoln, McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay is the perfect example of a dedicated public servant and statesman, attending to President Lincoln as his private secretary until the very end, at his deathbed, and dying in office (at The Fells) while serving as President Roosevelt’s Secretary of State. He was also a distinguished diplomat, poet, and a key biographer of Lincoln. Fulfilling the conservation mission that was a key part of his purchase and development of the lakeside property, Hay’s descendants donated the extended acreage surrounding the house to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1960s, and it eventually became the John Hay National Wildlife Refuge. Hay’s daughter-in-law Alice Hay maintained the house as her summer residence until her death in 1987, after which it was established as a non-profit organization, open for visitors from Memorial Day through Columbus Day weekends.
When it comes to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century country or summer residences in New England which are now open to the public, it seems to me there are three essential types: those of very rich people (think Newport), those of statesmen (The Fells; Hildene in Manchester, Vermont; Naumkeag in Stockbridge), and those of creative people (The Mount in Lenox; Beauport; Aspet, Augustus Saint-Gauden’s summer home and studio in Cornish, New Hampshire). The last category is my favorite by far, but there’s always lots to learn by visiting the houses of the rich and the connected, and John Milton Hay was as connected as they come. I was a bit underwhelmed by the house, which is a Colonial Revival amalgamation of two earlier structures, until I got to its second floor, which has lovely views of the lake and surrounding acreage plus a distinct family feel created by smaller interconnected bedrooms opening up into a long central hall. The airiness of the first floor felt a bit institutional, but this was an estate built for a very public man, after all. For the Hays, I think it was all about the relation of the house to its setting, rather than the house itself.
The gardens surrounding the house also seemed a bit sparse although it was a hot day in late July and we might be between blooms; certainly the foundations and structures are there, especially in the rock garden that leads down to the lake. This was the passion of Hay’s youngest son, Clarence, who established the garden in 1920 and worked on it throughout his life. After his death in 1969, the garden was lost to forest, but it was reestablished by the efforts of the Friends of the Hay Wildlife Refuge and the Garden Conservancy. When you’re standing in the rock garden looking up at the house, or in the second floor of the house looking down at the rock garden and the lake beyond, you can understand why the well-connected and well-traveled John Milton Hay proclaimed that “nowhere have I found a more beautiful spot” in 1890.
July 29th, 2019 at 11:17 am
As usual Donna, spectacular photos! This was a real treat. We may need to see it ourselves!
July 29th, 2019 at 11:47 am
Great weekend road trip: you could also take in Saint-Gauden’s summer house in Cornish. We stayed at the Hancock Inn, further south, but highly recommended!
July 29th, 2019 at 11:24 am
I’m in love with this house and gardens. I’m restoring a 1925 colonial revival house and Herbert J. Kellaway garden in Monson. I’m lucky to have the blueprints.
July 29th, 2019 at 11:46 am
Very simple with house and garden oriented towards each other—-I know that was a principle of Kellaway’s! Do you know who the architect was?
July 29th, 2019 at 1:49 pm
The Architects for the Monson house were Kirkham & Parlett from Springfield, Ma.
July 29th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
The architects for the Monson house was Kirkham & Parlett. I have the blueprints for the house.
July 29th, 2019 at 12:54 pm
Hi Donna,
Thanks for sharing your excursion to THE FELLS, the summer home of American diplomat John Hay. He was an intimate of one of my favorite writers, Henry Adams (1838-1818) of the fourth generation of that illustrious Quincy family. In fact, Hay and Adams constructed adjoining mansions off Lafayette Square, across from the White house in 1884. Henry Hobson Richardson was the architect. The property later became the Hay-Adams hotel, one of the most exclusive in DC I have been told.
The wry Henry Adams often described himself as the “stable companion of statesmen” in Washington’s political milieu. No doubt, Adams must have visited The Fells too.
July 29th, 2019 at 3:18 pm
I am sure: I know they were close and Hay was very distressed by the suicide of Henry’s wife Clover.
July 29th, 2019 at 5:37 pm
I also read recently that Hay was enamored with Henry’s glamorous, younger confidante Elizabeth Camerson. Who knows?
July 29th, 2019 at 5:40 pm
Indeed!
July 30th, 2019 at 6:59 pm
What appeals to me from your wonderful photos is the peace and simplicity of the house and garden. I just returned from a short trip to New Hampshire and Vermont and it comforts me that so little has changed.
I will put The Fells on my list for next year. Always a pleasure to read your posts.
July 31st, 2019 at 7:01 am
Yes, it is comforting to visit the country for that very reason: I love living in a small city but the development pressure is pretty intense right now and change always seems to be prioritized over continuity.