The wording of poster for the current exhibit at the Hopkinton Historical Society, “Summer Residents Come to Hopkinton,” summons the viewer to “come to Hopkinton.” The evocative image suggests a scenic place – stone wall, pasture, woodland, a gentle hill.
It is a watercolor of an Arcadian place apart by Albert B. Bibb (1853-1942), a professor and architect from Washington, D.C., who resided on Gould Hill summers from 1911-42. Other sketches by Bibb make clear that he had toured Europe, that he was in the service of the federal government, that he had designed life-saving stations across the United States, yet Hopkinton was his chosen summer residence, a town where he also kept a boathouse on the Contoocook River.
As a longtime summer resident of Hopkinton myself (from birth to this day), my visit informed me in detail about the town’s summer culture. Ascending the steps to the display, one is confronted by the strident slogan “Let the eagle scream!” a motto splayed across a poster loudly announcing Hopkinton’s Independence Day celebration – fire engine display, games for all ages, a ball game, with “suitable prizes for all contests.” To top it all off, a celebratory dinner would be served at the Perkins Inn. Fireworks! Who would not want to be in Hopkinton on the patriotic day?
The Perkins Inn was a classy place, as is made apparent by further displays. Summer guests are pictured dining in sartorial splendor of the Edwardian era; a frilly servant’s dress speaks to the style expected of the out-of-town crowd in residence. Why, even a half-gallon pitcher decorated with a transfer print of the inn and adorned with lusty beer drinkers (replete with rhymed sayings in German), suggests less than Yankee sobriety!
Mount Lookout Inn along the road to Contoocook (a building still standing today) extolled its location as “looking out” on the “most beautiful mountain scenery in New Hampshire outside of the White Mountains.” Well, Mount Kearsarge is splendid, but it does not measure up to the Mount Washington Valley. Put another way, Hopkinton is not North Conway.
Importantly, however, Mt. Lookout Inn is here keyed to the summer culture of the Whites, a region once heavily pitched as the American Switzerland, a region opened to Boston and beyond by the railroad, a region which attracted the so-called White Mountain school of painters. Put another way, the text is a very savvy bit of advertising.
Now, all summer residents were not out-of-town visitors to Hopkinton on vacation; some returned from afar to Hopkinton for Old Home Days. During the late 19th century, many left for better land and opportunities elsewhere, leaving behind the stony fields for jobs in industry. As is explained in the displays, in 1897, N.H. Gov. Frank Rollins wanted these “native born to return and buy the many abandoned farms in the state for summer homes.” Surely, there were some who followed the call, even if many were but briefly in residence for the nostalgic gatherings. Indeed, the staff of the Hopkinton Historical Society assiduously ferretted out some 70 such homesteads. The listing maps the summer residences, creating an important model for the understanding of the importance of summer culture for the Hopkinton community.
There are many more details worth mentioning in the historical society’s current exhibit. A poster announcing a country auction, for example, reminds the potential auction attendee that the home site of the auction would make an ideal summer residence. An informative piece on Kimball Lake with its log cabins (several recently restored) bears mention as does another display on “summer residents of ordinary means,” that is, families who bought up waterfront property on ponds and the Contoocook River for modest camps and cabins – according to tax records, 44 in 1953, 99 by 1969.
Finally – if I might reminisce, my boyhood at our family’s summer residence in Hopkinton during the 1950s was spent with endless “play” in and around the place – swinging endlessly in the hammock, producing inept theater productions in the cavernous barn, walking down a wood road to a swimming hole rippling with bloodsuckers, building cozy lean-tos of saplings propped against roadside stone walls.
Enough said, for years I have returned to a more recently built summer place. I have come to Hopkinton, “our tow” – “Nice town, y’know what I mean?”
“Summer Residents come to Hopkinton” will be on display until Sept. 1. For more information about the exhibit and summer programs, go to HopkintonHistory.org or call 746-3825.