Crosby-Gould-Thoms House

This is one of the homes located in the National Register of Historic Places, New Ipswich Center Village Historic District. Center village is bounded roughly by Turnpike Road, Porter Hill Road, Main Street, Route 123A, Preston Hill Road, Manley Road and King Road.

This is the description of the #73 property in the National Register:

John Crosby, one of several local saddlers, built this house circa 1790. Around 1800 it was purchased by Jeremiah Pritchard (1754-1813) who operated the tannery further north on Main Street behind #69. His son, Jeremiah, remained in the house for a few years carrying on the tanyard business before moving to Concord, New Hampshire. By 1816 the house belonged to the Gould family. Nathaniel Duren Gould (1781-1864), who purchased the house, was born Nathaniel Gould Duren, one of fourteen children, whose parents lived in Billerica, Massachusetts. He was adopted at the age of ten by his uncle Nathaniel Gould, an early settler in New Ipswich. He married Sally Pritchard, cousin of Jeremiah, in 1801. He became a noted teacher of grammar, music and penmanship and moved to Boston in 1819 and later to New York, teaching music and penmanship in both places. The Historical Society has an example of his penmanship. He developed a system of teaching small children to sing, starting with Sunday school, and soon had several schools around Boston. While in New Ipswich, he was a Deacon of the Church, selectman and a representative in the legislature. His son, Augustus Addison Gould, was the co-author of the 1852 History of New Ipswich. In 1846 the property was bought by Newton Brooks (1812-1898), who remained here until 1881. He was an oil painter and early daguerreotype photographer, the first to have a gallery on wheels to exhibit and sell his work; the gallery is in the Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. In the early 20th century the house was occupied by Laura Gould Hooper and Elizabeth Gould, daughters of Charles Duren Gould, a son of Nathaniel and brother of Augustus Addison Gould. His publishing firm of Gould and Lincoln in Boston, published the 1852 Town History, cowritten by his brother.

"Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future." - Ellie Wiesel

Among the collection of glass negatives that I've scanned for the New Ipswich Historical Society I came across a picture of a home currently owned by my friend Betsy Thoms. After living there for over 50 years, Betsy will be moving . The property is listed with Greg Hanselman of Petersons Real Estate.

Photo taken July 2, 2016

The notes on the negative refer to this as Miss Gould's Home. I think the name Thoms should be appended to its name. This photo was undated but I suspect it was taken about 100 years ago.

I have photos available for sale