Sawyer-Medlicott House, Route 25, Piermont, New Hampshire

This historic house in Piermont, New Hampshire had me hooked from the moment I saw its fox door knocker and wallpaper featuring pumpkins, gourds, and pheasants. I knew it would be the perfect place for cozy fall scenes.

But I'm putting the fox and pumpkins ahead of the house. It was built around 1820 and has many Federal era features.

I like that the front of the house doesn't face the street. The newer road curves around it...

and then the house just keeps going along with the road:

The attached outbuildings (can they still be considered outbuildings?) are more recent additions.

The Federal details show up on the front of the house, with soapstone lintels above the windows, and the fluted pilasters and rosettes around the front door...

not to mention the fanlight over it:

The fireplaces in the two front rooms also have soapstone lintels.

This room would look beautiful dressed like so:

{Leta Austin Foster}

The dining room is tucked behind the back staircase:

It started life as the kitchen. The floorboards are narrower here, and it's believed that the fireplace surround isn't the original, although it looks like the ones in the front rooms.

Here is the kitchen. It was originally just the summer kitchen, in the ell of the building.

If it were mine, I'd give it yet another lease on life:

{Leta Austin Foster}

This is the view of the other side of the kitchen. Behind the fireplace is a large iron cooking vat. The nook was uncovered in the 1980's, when the owners found the vat elsewhere on the property.

This next room has a similar restoration/detective story in that the floors were originally narrow oak boards. They were replaced by boards sourced from the attic. The granite hearth used to be the back door sill.

There's a bathroom (not pictured in the listing photos) where the old kitchen pantry used to be. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms and another bathroom. The house has 4,456 square feet.

The fireplaces have soapstone lintels but slightly simpler profiles than the ones downstairs.

The attached outbuildings include a garage and stable, which was built in 1982.

The property is on 5.9 acres.

Piermont, New Hampshire has always been a rural community with farms. Picture a bunch of sheep grazing in the photo above.

Just as the town seal incorporates lots of ideas, so does the name Piermont itself. It's either named for Peaked Mountain "standing out like a great pier" or for the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy.

{Peaked Mountain. Does it look like a pier to you?}

At any rate, Peaked Mountain probably stands out quite well from the Sawyer-Medlicott House, because it's only about 6 minutes away. The house is also quite near the Connecticut River, which means it's just a stone's throw from Vermont.

Accordingly, the first owner of the house, Joseph Sawyer, had part ownership of the first bridge (built in 1877) to span the river between Piermont and Bradford, Vermont. 

{source}

"Squire" Joseph Sawyer "obtained a lodgment in the public remembrance" by being an unostentatious, well bred citizen who was active in the community and the state legislature. The Medlicotts bought his house in 1981, and have obtained public remembrance in their own right for restoring the house so beautifully and listing it on the National Register of Historic Places, here.

Which is more fun, exploring the history of the house or picturing it all fluffed up with fall decor? I'll say both.

If you agree, the Old House Dreams listing is here.