Harrisville, NH

Today, John and Cynthia treated Ellen and me to a trip over to Harrisville, NH, which is about an hour's drive away. There are many attractions there: it is a super-charming old NE mill town with stately brick buildings galore arranged around a lake and mill race; it is the family home of John's Townsend ancestors (a great-grandmother, and a gg and ggg grandfather all lived there); it has a very nice General Store which serves excellent lunches; and it is home to a very high-end wool Spinnery and weaving center: Harrisville Designs. It was raining lightly off and on much of the day, and it was a bit chilly, but we still had a great time.

First stop was the ancestral farm home  of Kate Townsend and her parents, David and Maria Townsend. Kate was Shirley's mother's mother. My granddaughter Katie is named after her. Unfortunately, in about 2003, someone tore down the Townsend farmhouse and built sort of a modernized replica. There are some remnants of the original outbuildings still there but not a lot. But the present owner was very welcoming and showed us around. Amazingly, we learned that he has a connection with friends in River Singers and plans to move to Vt this summer and wants to join RS this fall! Small world! 

Here is the house as it used to look and now:

     The original Townsend farmhouse 

                     Today

The previous generation, David Townsend's father, Jonathan, also built  a home in Harrisville, which eventually belonged to artist George deForest Brush and is on the National Registry. We went by there too:

   The Jonathan Townsend Farm

So that was all pretty interesting family history. Then we walked around Harrisville village, had lunch at the store, and went to the woolens mill. A great time! 

          Harrisville Public Library

       The Community Church

      One of many old mill buildings

Home of Harrisville Design store and weaving school.

     Looms in the weaving classroom 

The General Store, where we ate lunch

From the window of the "loom room"