Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-In House

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Summary: Every house has a history...
Review: ...and the Red House in Marshfield, Massachusetts, is fortunate enough to have one-time resident Sarah Messer as its storyteller. Englishman Walter Hatch built the original structure in 1647. Ownership passed through 9 or 10 generations of Hatches until 1965, when it left Hatch hands and Messer's parents bought the house. Thus is the author linked to her subject.

She alternates between her own family's history and that of the Hatches, tracing both the fate of the individuals and the imprint each left on the house. There are additions, renovations, fires and restorations. Relatives move away and others come back. Time passes, and the Red House outlives all of its inhabitants. And all along the underlying question is: Whose house is it, really?

"The house contains both the living and the dead, and there are always traces, because the house is not separate, has not one owner but many, has many beams, many different panes of glass, the way a body might have many lovers, the way each owner might look at the house as if at the body of a lover. If the window is removed, is it still a part of the house? If the fireplace swing-arm is taken and put in a museum, is it no longer a part of the house? Can the house be removed from itself? The owner, the past, the parts of the house. I thought: Who can steal a house? Who owns the lover but the loved?" (p. 234)

This reader cannot help but be reminded of a farmhouse in her own past: one that's been in her family since 1915 and might not survive the decade with that surname on the mailbox. But that's a story for another day.

To delve into this fascinating book is to relive the cultural and coastal history of the Bay State through the lives of one extended family, and to further ponder one's own footprint left on the earth. Highly recommended for all who know of such homes and who want not only to restore and remember them, but to also know intimately the souls who once spent (and perhaps STILL spend) time there.


Rating:
Summary: Weaves family history with a unique renovation
Review: Built in 1647, the Red House in Marshfield, Massachusetts was the home of one family for eight generations: the original owner/builder's will hung in the living room and admonished future generations to keep the house in the family: a dictate which was to end when the house was sold to author Sarah Messer's parents. Over the years prior owner Richard Hatch began returning furniture, photos, and other objects to the house, saying they belonged there - Sarah Messer weaves family history with a unique renovation and historical project in her involving and personal story of Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-In House.


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Summary: Red House is wonderful...
Review: I enjoyed this book on several levels. First, a disclaimer, I'm a friend of the author's sister. So the book was interesting from that perspective. But I loved reading about the generations of the Hatch family as well as the impact of living in a centuries old house on the Messers. Anyone who has a relationship with a house which goes beyond the mere structure can relate to this story of emotional attachment to the building known as home. And Sarah Messer's poetic talents are evident in the beauty of the prose.