The Restoration of Dutton Farmhouse

During restoration

After restoration. Photo by Kelly Fletcher

Today, Dutton Farmhouse is as vibrant and elegant as it was when it was built in 1840. It was a privilege to be involved in the rescue of this fine building.

The original owner Asa Dutton chose this site, with its expansive views across the Connecticut River Valley to the mountains of New Hampshire beyond, to build his farmhouse.

For over 40 years before The Landmark Trust USA began work, Dutton Farmhouse had served as migrant labor housing. The elegant and comfortable parlors were filled with military-style bunk beds and metal lockers. The original kitchen had been gutted and lined with metallic paneling; the windows were replaced by modern casement windows. A dormitory-sized bathroom had been installed in the shed and contained multiple showers, toilets, urinals, and sinks. The principal upstairs bedroom was used for karate practice.

While it is generally the practice of The Landmark Trust USA to recognize the continuum of history in a building and to leave historical changes, we make exceptions when the quality of later work is markedly inferior to the original. That was clearly the case for Dutton Farmhouse, and so we began to peel away modern finishes.

Amazingly, a great deal of original fabric remained. Underneath modern finishes, we discovered clues in almost every room to the original decorations. Every room retained at least some original plaster. Underneath vinyl and modern strip flooring, we found the original floorboards. The room layout of the rear ground floor was revealed in the ceiling and floor framing, and even the location of shelves in the pantry was clear from the corner post.

After weeks of this delving into the fabric, we determined the layout. Upstairs, the only structural change was to the rear north bedroom. Here, the wall facing onto the rear hall had been removed and the room shortened by the insertion of a bathroom (which, by the time we acquired the farm, had no fixtures). The present floor plan is the original.

Downstairs, the structural changes were restricted to the kitchen and rear service rooms. Inspection revealed the original floor plan, to which we returned. We converted one of these spaces into a bathroom.

The decorative scheme for the house included bold colors and striking wallpapers. We returned to this as much as possible, including custom wallpaper for the front hallway; the reproduction paper even includes mica powder in the paint, which imparts a sheen. The front parlor paper is a very close match to the earliest layer that we discovered. The rear upstairs hallway wallpaper is remarkably similar to the earliest that we discovered here under a modern door casing.

You can book a stay at the historic Dutton Farmhouse here.