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  • Bill Nichols

The Carter House

Updated: Feb 23, 2023

In the late 19th century, travelers heading north from Bennington and crossing Great Brook where Goodell Park is now, could look to the east, towards where Richard and Lorraine Edmunds now live on Depot Street, and be greeted by a lovely two-and-a-half-story building known as the Carter House.


The Carter House location indicated by the red dot.

Ebenezer Kimball headstone, Hill, NH

In 1787, a man by the name of Ebenezer Kimball, born in Wenham, Massachusetts, moved to Antrim and built a house on Depot Street. Local historian Rev. W. R. Cochrane wrote that it was a “long, low house, with the gable end standing square up to the road.” The following year, Ebenezer opened the first retail store in the town of Antrim, which was operated from the rear of his home. Ebenezer married Polly Aiken in 1792.

Polly, the first white person born in Antrim, was born on April 15, 1768 and was the daughter of Deacon James Aiken, who had become the second Antrim settler in April 1767. Ebenezer operated his store for the next five or six years and eventually sold it to Andrew Seaton. The store passed through the hands of many others, including Moses McFarland, William Whittemore, ”Miller and Caldwell” and James Campbell before they moved on to other things.

Polly Aiken Kimball headstone, Hill, NH

George Duncan came to Antrim by way of Hancock in the early 1800s. He worked for a while at the tannery at the foot of Poor’s Hill, the bottom of High Street, and eventually purchased that business. In 1820, George Duncan began operating the store at the “old low house” on Depot Street. He made vast improvements and enlarged the building, the “chief part of which was built” by him, according to Rev. Cochrane. George was also a selectman, moderator, representative, postmaster and town clerk in Antrim during his time here. George passed away in January 1840.

Not much is known about the owners of the house between 1840 and 1860, when Charles H. Carter came along from Amherst. Charles was in Antrim to engage in manufacturing the “People’s Pump”, a residential fire suppression system of sorts. Charles moved to Peterborough in 1870, but returned to Antrim in 1876 when, according to Rev. Cochrane, he “enlarged and extensively improved the George Duncan place in South Village, making the public house known as the Carter House.”

People's Pump envelope - C.H. Carter

In the July 27, 1876, edition of the Peterborough Transcript, it was reported that “Charles Carter, recently of your town, has remodeled and improved his residence in the village, and is, we hear, soon to open a hotel—a much needed improvement in the town.” By October of that same year, the Transcript was reporting that Antrim “seems to be the liveliest little business town in the vicinity” and that the Carter House was “nicely finished and furnished, and as neat as wax, and affords the most pleasant accommodations to the weary traveler.” Weary travelers weren’t the only ones that saw a benefit to the newly-opened Carter House.

On January 1, 1877, Mr. and Mrs. David Goodell, owners of Goodell Company, hosted a New Year’s dinner party at the Carter House for eighty employees. This consisted of a turkey dinner at 1:00 p.m., followed by a “very social” affair.


Milton Tenney

In January 1880, Charles was finishing off a little 30-foot by 60-foot addition, no doubt to accommodate all those dinner parties and weary travelers, but by September 1881, things were about to change. C. H. Neal advertised a September 17th auction of “all the furniture and furnishings of the ‘Carter House’ in Antrim—a large and attractive sale,” and a week later C. H. Neal was moving to Nashua and Milton Tenney was the new proprietor of the Carter House, although Charles Carter still owned the building.

Milton Tenney, better known in Antrim historical records as the proprietor of the Antrim House, was born in Marlow in 1836 and moved to Antrim around 1881. By April 1888, Milton Tenney had bigger and better ideas. He left the Carter House and opened a new hotel fittingly called the Antrim House, later referred to as the Maplehurst Inn. Along with running the Carter House and eventually the Antrim House, Tenney was well involved in town affairs, serving as overseer of the poor, selectman and representative before his death in 1916.

It appears that a Mr. & Mrs. Henry B. Farwell took over as the proprietors of the Carter House, after possibly managing it for Tenney for several years before he sold the rights to the Carter House business.

Rooms at the Carter House were available by the day or for more permanent stays. Those who made the Carter House their home occasionally passed away there. One notable death was that of Professor A. G. Sherlock, a musical and theatrical director well-known throughout New England. According to the Transcript, he had recently conducted “operette entertainments with local talent in Nashua, Manchester, Concord, Wilton, Milford, Hillsborough and last at Antrim.” He died at the Carter House of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1886 at the age of 40.

In January 1889, considerable damage was done to the interior walls of the hotel. It seems someone thought adding kerosene to an already burning coal fire was a novel idea. Luckily, there was no report of injury or any major damage, but that wouldn’t be the only excitement the hotel would see. According to the latest town history, Parades and Promenades, the Carter House “at least once had been raided and found to be in violation of the liquor laws.”


The Carter House in the background. Goodell Company sawmill on the left.

On February 12, 1894, several horses attached to a snow roller, went running wildly through town with the driver, Robert Shea, hanging from the pole between the horses. He eventually managed to get control of it as he pulled into the yard of the hotel. And 100 years ago, David Cohen was pulling his chain-drive vehicle into the Carter House yard when the chain broke. With no emergency brake, the runaway car crashed into the home of Margaret Shea at the corner of Depot and Water Streets. According to the Antrim Reporter on February 16, 1921, “the enclosure where the driver sat was well smashed to pieces but Mr. Cohen was not injured.”


In 1892, records indicated that Charles Carter was still the owner of the Carter House property and living in the residence. But in the April 11, 1906, edition of the Antrim Reporter, there was notice of the sale of the Carter House:

"Jotham Faulkner of Peterboro has purchased the Carter House of Charles E. Carter of Lowell, Mass., who was in town Saturday last and gave the deed. This sale was made by M. Tenney. Mr. Faulkner moves into this house the present week."

One report had the purchase price at $1350.00. This might explain the change in the name from the Carter House to the New Antrim House, not to be confused with the Antrim House being run by Mr. Tenney.

This sawmill was located opposite the Carter House.
Goodell Company sawmill opposite the Carter House.

But again, by 1922, the old Carter House (New Antrim House) had a new owner...Mr. George F. Cluff. By the spring of 1924, Mr. Cluff was putting considerable money into the New Antrim House’s repair and furnishings, and business was going well. An Antrim Reporter article reported that the New Antrim House had just put up a “very attractive new electric sign,” but unfortunately that sign wouldn’t survive to see Christmas. Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on December 23, 1924, someone noticed smoke and fire in the New Antrim House, and the town fire alarm was sounded. The fire department, along with many other residents, responded to help, but the fire had a head start. Everyone escaped safely. Two people were injured, one jumping from a second-story window, and were attended to by the local doctor. Almost all clothing and personal effects were destroyed, and although the adjoining properties were saved, the old Carter House was a total loss.


The Carter House c. 1890. Fred Nay, Photographer.

Unfortunately, because of the fire, there is nothing tangible left of the Carter House, barring a beautiful photo taken by Antrim photographer Fred Nay and some pool table licenses, most likely preserved by Town Hall. The old Carter House served the town proudly for 137 years, seeing dozens of owners and landlords, providing work for hundreds of local people and accommodations for thousands.


Milton Tenney Pool Table License, April 28, 1886.

Although the structure was gone, it would still provide one more thing for the town. At some point after the fire, Route 202 was being built and the Otis Smith tenement house, which sat just opposite Goodell Park, was in the way. Instead of tearing it down, the owners decided to move it, and the old Carter House foundation provided a place for it to sit for a few more years.


Update - March 2021:

After further research, I believe I may have some answers as to what transpired with the house during the period from 1840 through 1865.

When George Duncan passed away in 1840, it’s possible that he either left the house to his son George Cristy Duncan or it was purchased by him. George Cristy was the second son of George and Isabel Hopkins and was born April 26, 1818, a tanner by trade. He also built the Levi Woodbury house on Main Street, currently a home for girls, located across the street from Edmunds Hardware. On November 3, 1841, George Cristy married Mary Whiton, the 5th child of Rev. John M. Whiton, the author of the first town history of Antrim.

After George Cristy’s father died, he succeeded his father in the old tannery business. The buildings of the tannery were burned in 1841, but George decided to rebuild. In 1852, the buildings of the tannery burned again, but this time George had had enough and that was the end of the tannery.

George Cristy and Mary Whiton had three children; Mary, b. 1847. Katherine, b. 1851 and George, b. January 1855 and d. February 1859 at age 4. George Cristy Duncan died September 24, 1855 age 37.

On May 14, 1857, Mary Whiton Duncan tied the knot for a second time to a man by the name of John M. Taylor. As luck would have it, this would be a very short matrimony as Mary Whiton Duncan Taylor would pass away six months later, November 10, 1857 at the age of 38.



If you look at the map of Antrim from 1858, you’ll see a house marked as J. M. Taylor, (a.k.a. John M. Taylor) shown as the last house on Depot Street, soon to be known as the Carter House. How long John M. Taylor continued to live in the house, after Mary died, is not known, but Charles H. Carter was a resident in 1864, indicated by his signature on a petition to the State to widen a road in Antrim, possibly Route 202.

This would explain some of the missing years of ownership; George handed/sold it to his son George Cristy who married Mary Whiton who married John M. Taylor after George Cristy died. The house then being left to John M. Taylor after his wife, Mary Whiton Duncan Taylor died. It may then have been purchased from John M. Taylor by Charles H. Carter when he moved to town in the late 1850s or early 1860s.

These are only my assumptions based on documents such as town history books, newspapers and an 1858 map.



Is there another building in town you’re curious about? Send us an email.


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