{"id":11463,"date":"2024-02-29T18:03:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T18:03:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Free-house-available-in-Rye-New-Hampshire-54129105\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11463","title":{"rendered":"Free house for grabs \u2013\u00a0historic home\u00a0is all yours, if you can move it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"If
If interested, contact Rye New Hampshire Town Historian Alex Herlihy a alexherlihy@comcast.net.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Rye
Rye Town Historian Alex Herlihy (pictured) and the Rye Advocates for Historic Homes are trying to find someone who will take this historic colonial off the owner\u2019s hands \u2013\u00a0it just needs to be moved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Pine
Pine flooring ready to be moved or re-used.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"The
The staircase is the first thing you see when you walk into the house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"A
A sunny room off the entry area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"\u00a0One
\u00a0One of the five\u00a0fireplaces.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Rye
Rye Town Historian Alex Herlihy (pictured) and the Rye Advocates for Historic Homes are trying to find someone who will take this historic colonial off the owner\u2019s hands \u2013 it just needs to be moved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Antique
Antique hardware is found throughout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"The
The box winder staircase that goes to all three floors.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

Up for grabs: A historic farmhouse with wide pine floors,\u00a0raised paneled doors, wooden wainscoting\u00a0and antique hardware.<\/p>\n

Built\u00a0by the\u00a0Locke family in Rye in 1830, the white, 2,000-square-foot Colonial \u2013\u00a0complete with additions \u2013\u00a0\u00a0features four bedrooms and two full bathrooms.<\/p>\n

To say the price is affordable would be an understatement. It\u2019s being offered for\u00a0free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s market, a free house can seem\u00a0too good to be true. In some ways, it is since the house needs to be disassembled, moved, and reassembled.<\/p>\n

The unique opportunity through the Rye Advocates for Historic House Preservation arose when the new\u00a0owners decided they\u00a0didn\u2019t want to demolish the historic house, but they don\u2019t want to live in it, either. The owner, who acquired the property in June,\u00a0wants to build further back on the lot and is looking for the existing home to be removed by the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it could be done in a matter of weeks,\u201d said Alex Herlihy, the town historian, and member of the preservation group. \u201cThis would not take months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prospective \u201cbuyer\u201d for the free house has two primary choices:\u00a0Either move the old farmhouse in a couple of 2 \u00bd-story pieces to a nearby lot\u00a0or completely dismantle and rebuild the entire house elsewhere. Both options would require a new foundation, possibly\u00a0by reusing the granite stones currently under the house.<\/p>\n

Rebuilding the house will take time and expense.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got this box winder front staircase, so when you open the front door, there\u2019s the stairway. And it goes up, and then it turns to the left, and then it turns to the left again, so you\u2019ve got three stages going upstairs,\u201d\u00a0Herlihy said.\u00a0\u201cThat thing comes out last in one piece, and it is the first thing you put up when you go to reassemble it because it\u2019s so big \u2013 it doesn\u2019t come apart.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herlihy knows a thing or two about rebuilding homes. His own historic\u00a0house was\u00a0dismantled in Hampton and rebuilt in Rye in 1975.\u00a0Herlihy said the masons re-used 1,000 bricks from the outside of the original house to build the new fireplace, patina and all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Locke Road house has two chimneys and five fireplaces that could be similarly repurposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really want to think, \u2018okay, I want to take this, this, and this.\u00a0No, I’m going to take that too, and I’m going to take that,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Herlihy said.\u00a0\u201cWhy would I leave it behind? Because I know I can reuse it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herlihy could not give an estimate for how much the house move would cost today to dismantle\u00a0compared to his own home because of the customization factor, inflation, and, probably the biggest difference, modern labor costs.<\/p>\n

Herlihy said he has already talked to multiple contractors who specialize in the dismantling and rebuilding of old houses. He said the ideal buyer, though, would be someone who already has some experience with either old houses or the rebuilding process, so they don\u2019t have to hire out all of the work. Since it\u2019s a post and beam house, the pieces can be numbered and reassembled back together, unlike more modern houses built with two-by-four construction.<\/p>\n

Town records say the house on Locke Road was built in 1830, but Herily said the historical society has documents that date the construction back to 1826.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rye has only 317 houses built before 1905 out of about 3,000\u00a0total housing units. Herlihy believes that the preservation of the few left is important to the appeal of any New England town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people want to move to a community\u2026 after the natural beauty, it\u2019s the built environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Herlihy is the main contact for those interested in the home. Multiple inquiries have been made so far, including some \u201cheartbreaking\u201d emotional responses from many people who would love to take the project up but do not have the resources. The historic preservation group is offering tours and will pass on complete proposals to the owner.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We] appreciate all the interest and we know how much people love the historic New England architecture,\u201d\u00a0said Herlihy.\u00a0\u201cSure, it would be nice to have it in Rye, but the fact that it would be rebuilt someplace and saved is the important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are interested in owning this historic home, contact Rye New Hampshire Town Historian Alex Herlihy at\u00a0alexherlihy@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up for grabs: A historic farmhouse with wide pine floors,\u00a0raised paneled doors, wooden wainscoting\u00a0and antique hardware.Built\u00a0by the\u00a0Locke family in Rye in 1830, the white, 2,000-square-foot Colonial \u2013\u00a0complete with additions \u2013\u00a0\u00a0features four bedrooms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":11464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=103]Chloe Rattee[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,8],"tags":[24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[595],"class_list":["post-11463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homebox3-cm","category-news","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/43045234-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11465,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11463\/revisions\/11465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11463"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11463"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}