Hay Estate

About this property

The Fells, also known as the Hay Estate, was originally the summer home of John Milton Hay, a 19th-century American statesman. It is located in Newbury, New Hampshire, on New Hampshire Route 103A, 2.2 mi (3.5 km) north of its junction with New Hampshire Route 103. John Hay served the United States in various capacities in a career that lasted over 40 years. He was Abraham Lincoln's private secretary during the Civil War and later a diplomat and a journalist. He became United States Secretary of State in 1898, serving in that position until his death in 1905. In the late 1880s New Hampshire farms were becoming less profitable, due to more Western competition. As a result, the state of New Hampshire stepped in and encouraged America's wealthy elite to buy up the farms and keep them afloat. In 1888, Hay bought 1,000 acres (400 ha) along the shore of Lake Sunapee, with the hope of establishing a summer colony for his group of friends, known as the "Five of Hearts". After Henry Adams' wife, Clover, committed suicide, Hay reconsidered those plans. Instead, he used the land as a retreat to put distance between him and the stresses of Washington. Hay named his property "The Fells", a British term for a rocky upland pasture, due to his Scottish ancestry. The first cottage on the property was constructed in 1891 under the direction of architect George Hammond. In 1897, a second guest cottage was added beside the original. The main entrance of the primary cottage faced the lake, as the Hay family arrived by boat. After Hay's death in 1905, the property was handed down to his son, Clarence Hay. Clarence and his wife Alice (née: Appleton) began to transform the rustic summer cottages into more of a lakeside mansion. Starting in 1915, under the supervision of local architect Prentice Sanger, Clarence and Alice had the house renovated into the Colonial Revival style. The breezeway connecting the two cottages was transformed into a formal hallway, so that the two cottages became part of one house. A garage was later added to accommodate the growing use of automobiles. In 1960 the Hays donated 675 acres (273 ha) to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. After Clarence Hay died in 1969, Alice Hay gave the remaining 164 acres (66 ha) to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, reserving 143 acres (58 ha) for use during her lifetime and that of her children. Alice continued returning each summer until her death in 1987. The remaining land then became the John Hay National Wildlife Refuge. Renovation of the house and land began in the 1990s. In 1996, "The Fells", a not-for-profit organization, was created to manage the house and surrounding lands. In 2008, The Fells bought the lands surrounding the main house from the Fish and Wildlife Service, through a land swap at Lake Umbagog in Coös County, New Hampshire.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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