The New Hampshire Farm Museum is a
farm museum on White Mountain Highway (
New Hampshire Route 125
New Hampshire Route 125 is a north–south state highway in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Rockingham, Strafford County, New Hampshire, Strafford and Carroll County, New Hampshire, Carroll counties in southeastern New Hampshire. The southern ...
) in
Milton, New Hampshire, United States. Three centuries of New Hampshire rural life are presented in the historic farmhouse. The museum includes a three-story great barn with collection of agricultural machinery, farm tools, sleighs and wagons. There are also live farm animals, a
nature trail
An educational trail (or sometimes educational path), nature trail or nature walk is a specially developed hiking trail or footpath that runs through the countryside, along which there are marked stations or stops next to points of natural scienc ...
and a museum shop. The museum is located on the former Plumer-Jones Farm, a traditional series of connected buildings with farmhouse dating to the late 18th century and barns dating to the mid 19th century,
which was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1979.
Setting
The New Hampshire Farm Museum is set on over of land between New Hampshire Route 125 to the east, and the
Spaulding Turnpike
The Spaulding Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road in eastern New Hampshire. Its entire length is overlapped by New Hampshire Route 16 (NH 16). Its southern terminus is at the Portsmouth Traffic Circle (I-95/ US 1 Byp.) in Portsmouth, a ...
to the west. This land is a subset of land settled in the 1780s by Joseph and Beard Plumer, two of the area's early settlers. The land they worked has been reduced by the construction of the turnpike. Most of the farm property consists of wood lots; about is open fields, used by the museum as a working demonstration farm.
[
The focal point of the museum is the connected 19th-century farmstead, a series of structures beginning with a small barn near the road, and ending with the Great Barn, one of the largest barns in southeastern New Hampshire. The farmstead includes as one of its intermediate ells the 1782 house of Joseph Plumer, quite possibly one of the first wood-frame structures built in this part of Milton. The main block of the farmstead, located near its center, was built about 1810, and served as a local tavern.][
The museum also owns the Plummer Homestead adjacent to the south; it was built by Beard Plumer.
]
Features
The museum functions as a working demonstration farm. The Great Barn houses three floors of exhibits of farm implements and machinery. The main farmhouse and the Plummer farmhouse are open to guided tours; the sections of the Jones house are each decorated in the style of a different era. Also on the property are a blacksmith's shop, with demonstrations on weekends, and a cider mill barn, which is used as an education venue. Walking trails wind their way through the wood lots at the back of the property.
Museum history
After its acquisition by the Plumers (later spelled "Plummer") in the 18th century, it was farmed by generations of Joneses and Plummers. The Jones heirs donated more than to the University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...
, and the core of the farmstead to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF) is a private, non-profit, land conservation organization, conservation and sustainable forestry organization based in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It purchases or is given easements ...
in 1973. It was acquired by the museum as its permanent home in 1979.
See also
*Open-air museum
An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.
Definition
Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Strafford County, New Hampshire
References
External links
New Hampshire Farm Museum website
{{NRHP in Strafford County, New Hampshire
Farm museums in the United States
Agriculture in New Hampshire
Historic house museums in New Hampshire
Museums in Strafford County, New Hampshire
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire
National Register of Historic Places in Strafford County, New Hampshire
Milton, New Hampshire