Historic Houses | NewburyNH Historical

Historic Houses of Newbury N.H.

The Historic House Marker program awards a plaque to those Newbury homes that are over one hundred years old. If your Newbury house is over one hundred years old, you may apply for an historic house designation.

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As of Spring 2023 there are 41 houses in the program with markers affixed to the outside of the building.
Build Date Location
c= circa = approx. date

c1789 58 Old County Rd
c1790 496 Cheney Rd
c1790 4 Route 103A
c1790 441 South Rd
c1790 126 Sutton Rd
c1800 161 Morse Hill Rd
c1800 200 South Rd
c1800 123 Village Rd
c1804 197 Fortune Rd
1813 192 Gillingham Dr
c1817 112 Morse Hill Rd
c1830 73 Mountain Rd
1831 236 Mountain Rd

c1840 1 South Road
c1848 112 Old Post Rd
c1850 166 Colburn Farm Rd
c1850 17 Sleepy St
c1850 148 Village Rd
c1852 184 Chalk Pond Rd
c1855 389 Mountain Rd
c1855 578 Route 103
c1872 30 Lake Ave
1876 133 Village Rd
c1880 17 Washington St
1880 62 Route 103A
c1890 36 Lake Ave
c1891 456 Route 103A
1891 167 Bay Point Rd
c1892 129 Bay Point Rd
1894 5 Indian Rd
1894 40 Lake Ave
1895 1 Lakeside Rd
1895 7 Sunlite Lane
c1898 2 Lake Ave
c1899 34 Lake Ave
1901 60 Route 103A
1902 137 Village Rd
1904 40 Washington St
1913 40 Birch Bluff

1914 224 Route 103A
1916 13 Pine St
1916 135 Village Rd

c1790

Cilley Tavern corner 103 & 103A

c1790

Cilley Tavern today with shops in front

c1800

Lyons late 1800's?

c1800

161 Morse Hill Rd. Lyons We were fortunate to find our old house in 1978. Set among twenty acres, in part field, the house dates back to c1800. Over the years we discovered features of the land and the home that were curious. For example, the double stone wall that bisects the property, the large hewn timbers that frame the house, and the huge boulders that form the U-shaped cellar. After a little investigation, with the help of the Newbury Historical Society, I learned the reasons for these features and more.
Fishersfield in the 1790s
A search of the deeds of the late 1700s showed two brothers named Morse bought lot 37 in 1795, 100 acres on what became Morse Hill Road. More on designation of “lot” later. John Morse took the southern half, our home, and Timothy took the northern half. The brothers grew up in Newbury, Massachusetts, about halfway between Boston, MA and Portsmouth, NH, near the Merrimack river.
At the time, Newbury, MA and Newbury, NH (called Fishersfield in 1790) were quite different. The former was a well settled community with the conveniences of the time, and our Fishersfield was a wilderness with 330 persons in 1790. Why would John, Timothy, and other Newbury settlers leave such comfort and convenience?

c1872

30 Lake Ave.

1890

36 Lake Ave.

1894

40 Lake Avenue

1899

34 Lake Ave.

1916

13 Pine St.

1913

40 Birch Bluff Rd
40 Birch Bluff Rd.
John “Mike” and Rosemary Croteau house,
In August 1909, John A Stevens of Somerville, MA, sold a lot to Mrs Jessie Louise Thurston of Portland, ME. Mike Croteau believes that Mrs Thurston was a school teacher and that John Stevens was surveyor. The lot did not yet have a building on it, but was sold with a right of way over an “abandoned” road to the main highway, and the right to draw water from a spring on Stevens’ property. Jessie Thurston built a house over the course of 1912 and 1913. We can see it in the 1912 property tax records as a “lot + cottage not complete” and in the 1913 records as a “cottage on JA Stevens”.
The cottage was sold by the executor of Jessie Thurston’s estate to William and Mae Bowes of Jamaica Plain, MA on September 25, 1941, along with two small lots that Thurston had added to the property. In 1954, the Bowes sold the cottage and property to Michael and Jane Fitzpatrick of Sunapee. In turn, the Fitzpatrick’s sold it to the Croteaus, along with some additional water rights obtained from Irene Stevens.
The Croteaus have maintained the house largely as it was built, with a few small modifications. Some interesting features that the Croteaus cited are interior trim made of cypress wood, a sleeping porch off the main second floor bedroom, and two sinks on the main floor, including a large soapstone dry sink the purpose of which is not clear. There is also a large sink in the basement that was likely intended for laundry.

1913

Croteau home early photo

1913

exterior remains the same