The Little Boar's Head Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
Description
The Little Boar's Head Historic District is located at the eastern end of the Town of North Hampton, New Hampshire and consists of an area of approximately 150 acres including almost one-and-a-half miles of coastline stretching roughly from south of the Rye town line and Bass Beach to the bathhouses north of the Hampton town line. The Little Boar's Head Historic District is composed primarily of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century summer cottages, houses and bathhouses, but also includes several early-19th century dwellings and fishhouses and dwellings constructed within the last fifty years. In total, the Little Boar's Head Historic District is comprised of 88 properties, including 103 contributing buildings; 28 noncontributing buildings (of which 25 are noncontributing due to age and 3 are noncontributing due to alteration), 7 contributing sites, 7 noncontributing structures, 2 contributing structures and 1 contributing object.
Ocean Boulevard (US Route 1-A) extends the length of the Little Boar's Head Historic District in a roughly north-south direction, following the undulations of the coastline, curving around peninsulas known as Fox Hill Point and Little Boar's Head. Atlantic Avenue (NH Route 111) enters from the west, terminating at Ocean Boulevard. Atlantic Avenue is set on a fairly level plateau, the area to the south, bordered by Sea Road, drops in elevation under the Head, forming a subarea known locally as "under the hill." To the north of Atlantic Avenue, Willow Avenue is a cut-through road which commences and terminates at Ocean Boulevard, while Chapel Road extends west of Willow Avenue. The majority of the terrain is fairly level. A large conservation area, Little River Marsh, is located south of Atlantic Avenue and Sea Road while Chapel Brook drains the area to the north of Willow Avenue.
The Atlantic Ocean is a major visual element and determining factor throughout the Little Boar's Head Historic District, with buildings sited to take advantage of spectacular views of the open sea. From Fox Hill Point south, the shoreline has been reinforced by a boulder seawall. The concrete seawall at the southern end of the Little Boar's Head Historic District was constructed in 1935. A walking path extends along the coastline north from the fishhouses, flanked by nine benches and grassy areas in some areas while climbing over the bouldered seawall in others. Stone walls mark the front lot line for many properties but are especially prevalent on Ocean Boulevard and Willow Avenue. There are examples of both granite ashlar and rubblestone construction; many of the walls have stone or concrete caps. In a few cases there are front walls or retaining walls of brick or concrete.
Historic views of the Little Boar's Head Historic District dating to the 19th century reveal a landscape which is considerably more open than that seen today. Several properties on Atlantic Avenue retain large open fields and the land on the south side of Atlantic Avenue has generally been left clear. In addition to mature trees, many of the larger properties are enhanced by extensive landscaping including flowering shrubs, perennial plantings and expansive lawn areas. The smaller lots generally allow for little more than foundation plantings. Concentrations of rosa rugosas are found along the shore road and sea walls, as well as a few Red Cedars. The most impressive man-made landscape within the Little Boar's Head Historic District is undoubtedly Fuller Gardens on Willow Avenue, a two-acre area laid out in a series of formal gardens including 1,500 rose bushes commissioned by Governor Alvan T. Fuller beginning in the early 1920s. A smaller flower garden just northeast of the fish houses on Ocean Boulevard has been planted continuously since the 1930s and is maintained by the Rye Beach-Little Boar's Head Garden Club and is supported in part by funds from the Little Boar's Head Precinct.
With the exception of Fuller Gardens, Union Chapel, the former Bunny's restaurant and the State Park Area, the buildings in the Little Boar's Head Historic District are exclusively residential. Little Boar's Head's zoning, established in 1937, predates that of the town by seven years. Lot sizes vary considerably with the smallest lots, of less than one acre, generally concentrated along Atlantic Avenue and between Atlantic Avenue and Sea Road. The twelve fish houses are without any acreage to speak of, and are surrounded by state land. The thirteen bath houses at the southern end of the Little Boar's Head Historic District are also located on a small wedge of land between Ocean Boulevard and the beach. Concentrated in the area bounded by Willow Avenue and Ocean Boulevard are a series of impressive early-20th century summer "cottages" set on large lots measuring between one and six acres with the mansion houses set back behind deep lawns. Several large lots exceeding five acres and incorporating large fields are found on the north side of Atlantic Avenue, at the western edge of the Little Boar's Head Historic District. These were associated with 19th century farmhouses. Elsewhere the houses are generally set fairly close to the street. In the triangle bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Ocean Boulevard and Sea Road subdivisions have resulted in the construction of several houses behind another.
Buildings in the Little Boar's Head Historic District are generally 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 stories in height and are in good to excellent condition. Most are of wood-frame construction with clapboard or shingle sheathing; there are a few instances of aluminum or vinyl siding. The Spaulding-Bottomley House ("Balmoral," 58 Ocean Boulevard (or 5 Willow Avenue)) is the only house with a brick exterior, other historic houses may display masonry on the first floor. Several buildings of recent construction display partial stone exteriors.
The Little Boar's Head Historic District illustrates a range of styles of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and includes examples of the Federal, Greek Revival, Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Stick style, Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival and Craftsman Bungalow. Beginning in the late-19th century, many of the buildings were architect-designed, by prominent Massachusetts practitioners as well as nationally-known architects such as Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Chicago. The buildings were constructed by skilled local contractors including builder Warren Moulton.
At least seven buildings were moved to new sites, still within the Little Boar's Head Historic District, in the nineteenth and early-20th century. Several other buildings were moved out of town altogether during the same period (Pierce House, Post Office) The evolution of the Little Boar's Head Historic District has also included the demolition of several local landmarks by their owners including Bachelder's Hotel in 1929, the Governor Alvan Fuller House in 1961, and the Vaux-Ingersoll House in 1964. Several bathhouses which stood for more than a hundred years were destroyed in the great winter storm of 1978 which also pushed Fish House #6 into the road. Fortunately, like the other fishhouses, it was reinforced with braces and made to float like a boat; it was later moved back into place. In 1989, the former Garden House was relocated to a new site, a short distance from its original location on the Bell Cottage property.
Aside from the changes in physical location described above, alterations to buildings in the Little Boar's Head Historic District have been minimal. As has been mentioned, few buildings have been sheathed in artificial sidings although changes to windows are more widespread. Within the district there are approximately ten houses that are non-contributing due to their recent date of construction and one which is considered non-contributing due to its degree of alteration.
Significance
The Little Boar's Head Historic District is significant as a unique and well-preserved example of a New Hampshire summer colony which, beginning in the mid 19th century, evolved from a farming and fishing community, to one dominated by summer tourism. Attracted by word of mouth and by published accounts, residents, many of whom were industrialists and politicians, came to the unspoiled seacoast from locations across the country including Chicago, Cincinnati, Pennsylvania, as well as nearby points such as Lawrence, Boston, Haverhill and Lowell, Massachusetts and Exeter, New Hampshire. The summer residents included both those who made long-term commitments to the area and erected impressive summer cottages as well as those who rented accommodations at either Bachelder's Hotel or various rental cottages and boarding houses. The period of significance for the Little Boar's Head Historic District is c.1800 -1949, reflecting the dates of the earliest settlement in the area and the fifty-year cutoff of the National Register of Historic Places. Despite incremental changes to individual resources, the Little Boar's Head Historic District taken as a whole possesses considerable integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.
The Little Boar's Head Historic District is also significant for its range of early-19th to mid-20th century structures, providing information about the architecture of a small village center as it evolved from a small farming and fishing center into a prosperous summer colony. The buildings of the Little Boar's Head Historic District range from the modest fishhouses constructed for storage by local fishermen to the elaborate "summer cottages" erected by the summer residents in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Structures in the Little Boar's Head Historic District comprise a cross section of architectural styles from the early-19th to the early-20th century and display the influence of the Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Second Empire, Italianate, Stick Style, Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival, Craftsman and other eclectic variations of the early 20th century. These buildings include works by nationally and regionally prominent architects including the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge; Stickney and Austin, Perkins and Bancroft, C.W. Damon, Wales and Holt, George Moore and William Rantoul. The Little Boar's Head Historic District is also includes a significant landscape, Fuller Gardens, which incorporates designs by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts.
Historical Background
What is now the town of North Hampton was, from 1638 until 1742, part of the town of Hampton and referred to as the "North Division." During the 1600s a number of towns including Kingston, East Kingston, Hampton Falls, Kensington and Seabrook broke away from Hampton, leaving only the North Division along the northern frontier unsettled. The earliest settlement in the North Division occurred in 1675 when Isaac Marston settled in the southernmost part of the North Division, along the highway which was already in existence, connecting Portsmouth's Piscataqua settlement and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. The road, then known as the Country Road, is today's Post Road or Rt. 1. Early settlement was concentrated just north of this garrison in what would become the first center of activity, known as North Hill. In 1742 the North Hill Parish of Hampton became the town of North Hampton. In addition to the North Hill section, the town included small settlements at the eastern part of the North Division — at Little River and Little Boar's Head, which had developed in proximity to saw mills and grist mills on Little River. Much later, in 1905, the New Hampshire legislature established the Little Boar's Head District, a village district in the Town of North Hampton. When the Little Boar's Head Village District was formed in 1905 in order to provide water, there were fourteen legal voters in the district — Albert, Ambrose and James Bachelder; George Boynton; Emmons, William, Harvey and Otis Brown; David Evans; William Jaques, Robert, Walter and Percy Locke and Andrew Littlefield. Predating the creation of the village district, the Little Boar's Head Improvement Society (in existence from 1886 until 1925) was formed in response to concerns with sidewalks.
The glacial drumlin which is known today as Little Boar's Head, and its twin to the south, Great Boar's Head, was given its name in the early 1600s by English explorers who were surveying the coast for English settlement. Into the early 19th century the land above the Little Boar's Head shoreline remained rocky and undeveloped. The area on the high ground above the shore was dominated by two large farms — the Jonathan and Joseph Brown farm which included the northern part of Little Boar's Head and Fox Hill Point, and the Michael Dalton farm to the south. Early residents earned their livelihoods by farming and fishing. Cattle grazed on the boulder-strewn pastures of Little Boar's Head. In the summer, hay was harvested in the fields and marshes. In the fall and winter, kelp and seaweed were collected to fertilize the farms. Fishing and lobstering took place from the fish houses, at least some of which were in place by 1804. In the warm months, large supplies of fish were caught and salted for winter use.
The map prepared by J. Chace in 1857 shows there were at least nine residences in what is now Little Boar's Head. In addition to the Brown and Dalton farms, other residents in the early 19th century included John Batchelder and James Batchelder to the west of the head; George Garland and Simon B. Dow to the south of the Head and P.J. & J.E. Cook north of Michael Dalton. As early as 1840 visitors were attracted to Little Boar's Head as a desirable place to spend a few days or weeks in the summer and several families opened their homes as boarding houses in the second quarter of the 19th century. "Bell Cottage," the first summer cottage on Little Boar's Head was constructed in 1862 by Mary Bell White on land which her father, Senator James Bell, purchased specifically for that purpose in 1845 from Michael Dalton. This dwelling, the first to be built at Little Boar's Head solely for a summer residence, still stands, greatly enlarged, at 4 Atlantic Avenue (Bell Cottage). In 1865, Franklin Pierce, former president of the United States and New Hampshire native, purchased the Brown farm on the north part of the Head for $6,200 with the intention of developing it as a summer resort. Pierce built a two-story cottage in 1866 but did not carry out his plans any further prior to his death in 1869. The four cottages which Charles Coffin of Newburyport built on the north side of Atlantic Avenue in 1869 offered another type of accommodation for summer visitors. The rental cottages were linked by plank walks to a dining hall ("Terrace Hall") where residents could take their meals. One cottage and "Terrace Hall" were destroyed by fire in 1891; two cottages and a barn survive today (Seaside Cottage and Garage, 27 Atlantic Avenue; Fern Cottage, 25 Atlantic Avenue). The first hotel on Little Boar's Head was constructed by Albert Bachelder on the north side of Atlantic Avenue in 1868 and offered complete residential accommodations and a dining room. Bachelder's Hotel (demolished 1929), which for many years contained the post office, soon became the focal point of activity on the Head, for residents and summer visitors alike. Union Chapel was constructed in 1877 on Chapel Road, part of the Franklin Pierce property and donated to the Union Chapel Fund Society by Mrs. Eliza Philbrick of Rye who also donated the land on which St. Andrews-by-the-Sea was built at Rye Beach. Funds for the chapel were raised by public subscription. Interdenominational services have been held there every summer since its founding.
Many famous personages have been associated with Little Boar's Head over the years, including those coming for brief visits or the greater part of the summer. In addition to Franklin Pierce, well-known politicians have included President James Garfield who spent several summers prior to his election at the John Bachelder place and at Bachelder's Hotel. Those who spent shorter visits here include Presidents Chester Arthur, William Taft and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Cabinet members with ties to the Head include George Robeson, Secretary of the Navy under President Grant from 1869 until 1877, who often arrived at his cottage by yacht which was anchored offshore. Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War under Garfield and Arthur spent many summers at the "Gates Ajar" cottage on Willow Avenue (demolished in 1941). Serving as Secretary of the Navy under President Truman, John L. Sullivan owned a house on Ocean Boulevard. Two U.S. Senators with associations to the Head include James Bell in the 1840s and William Chandler, Senator from 1887-1901, who was a summer visitor during and after his time in the Senate.
New Hampshire Governor Charles Bell was a summer resident in the 1880s and 1890s. Governor Alvan Fuller of Massachusetts and Governor Huntley Spaulding of New Hampshire lived in adjacent estates fronting Ocean Boulevard for a number of years. Fuller Gardens, is located across the road from where Governor Fuller's estate at 5 Willow Avenue stood until it was demolished in 1961.
In addition to politicians, Little Boar's Head also attracted a number of noted industrialists. Norman Williams, Chicago lawyer and executive of the Pullman Car Company, built a residence at 19 Willow Avenue (through to Ocean Boulevard) in 1897. Nathaniel White, President of the Boston and Maine Railroad occupied the "Bell Cottage" (4 Atlantic Avenue) for many summers at the turn-of-the-century. Charles Perkins of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad also summered here. Col. George Studebaker, an executive of the Studebaker Corporation, lived at Little Boar's Head (Studebaker House, "Breakers" or "Breaknolle," 40 Ocean Boulevard) in the summers from about 1910 into the 1930s. Other prominent executives included John Higgins, president of the Worcester Pressed Steel Company; Henry Hotchkiss, president of the L. Candee and Company of New Haven, Connecticut; William Wood of Lawrence, Massachusetts and John Hobson of Haverhill, Massachusetts.
To a lesser degree than other summer colonies in New Hampshire, Little Boar's Head Historic District has also been home to artists. Poet and humorist Ogden Nash lived in a cottage on Atlantic Avenue for many years as did renowned sculptress, Malvina Hoffman, a student of Guzton Borglum and Rodin, who spent many summers at the Bachelder's Hotel and used one of the fish houses as studio in the 1940s. During the 1930s Mrs. Arthur Hobson held a number of open-air concerts on the grounds of her estate; the concerts became known as the New Hampshire Seacoast Music Festivals, a predecessor of large concerts which were established in Boston and Tanglewood in the 1940s. One of these concerts was given for the benefit of the survivors of the sunken submarine, the USS Squalus. The Squalus went down off Little Boar's Head in 1939 due to the failure of the main induction hatch. There were 33 survivors; 29 were lost.
Atlantic Avenue and Sea Road appear to be the earliest roads in what is now Little Boar's Head. In 1804 the Town of North Hampton was petitioned "to build a road to the fish houses." In Colonial times, a "King's Highway" extended on the ocean side of the Fish Houses and continued to Hampton. The 1857 map by J. Chace shows that a road existed leading around the Head. What is now Ocean Boulevard did not exist until the turn-of-the-century. In 1899 Governor Rollins established a commission consisting of Sheriff John Pender of Portsmouth, Albert Bachelder of Little Boar's Head and Engineer Arthur Dudley of Brentwood to lay out the road beginning at the Massachusetts state line and extending to Newcastle. From 1900 to 1926 Little Boar's Head was served by a trolley system of street cars which ran from Portsmouth through Rye Beach to Little Boar's Head where it traveled up to Ocean Boulevard for a short distance then through the woods to Atlantic Avenue. At a junction roughly located at what is now 37 Atlantic Avenue, one branch continued to the North Hampton railroad station and the other went on to Hampton Beach across the marsh on a trestle. Due to opposition from local residents, the rail line ran through the woods, rather than along "The Head." During the peak summer season the cars ran on a 30 minute schedule.
The many prominent residents of Little Boar's Head also translated into multiple architect-designed residences. Among the best known were the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge who designed a residence for Norman Williams in 1898 (19 Willow Avenue (through to Ocean Boulevard)). The firm was formed in 1886 after the death of nationally prominent architect H.H. Richardson. Based primarily in Boston, the firm also maintained an office in Chicago (where Williams lived) between 1892 and 1897 under the guidance of partner Charles Allerton Coolidge. Among the commissions during this period were the Art Institute and Public Library in Chicago (1892-1897), the Ames Office Building (1892) and South Station (1899) in Boston (1892) and many other public and educational buildings. The firm of Perkins and Bancroft of Haverhill, Massachusetts had a unique connection to Little Boar's Head as architect Bancroft was a nephew of Ambrose Batchelder and Albert Bachelder — his mother was their sister — Emily Batchelder Bancroft. The firm was responsible for the design of the Albert Bachelder home, "Gray Rock," (16 Atlantic Avenue) in 1893. Among the other known designs by the firm are two Shingle style residences in Nashua — the F.D. Cook House at 66 Concord Street, 1889, and the I. Frank Stevens House, 51 Berkley Street, 1901. Another Haverhill firm, that of C.W. and C.P. Damon, was responsible for the design of the John Batchelder House (21 Atlantic Avenue) in 1877. There are few other known works by the firm other that the design for St. James Methodist Church and the Manchester Children's Home, both built in Manchester in 1892. The Lowell, Massachusetts firm of Stickney and Austin (Frederick Stickney and William D. Austin) designed the Baker-Hollister House ("Sea Verge," 46 Ocean Boulevard) in 1882, the Stott House (54 Ocean Boulevard) c.1880 and a stable for Capt. Jaques in 1894. Among the firm's other works are Memorial Hall in Lowell (1891), Billerica Town Hall and various schools, residences and business blocks in Manchester and Nashua. The design of Union Chapel in 1877 appears to have been a rather early design by Boston architect, George A. Moore, who in the 1890s was associated in practice with Arthur Little and Herbert Browne. No additional information has been found concerning a Boston architect named Robert Coit who designed the addition to Bell Cottage (4 Atlantic Avenue) in 1893 and the Alvan Fuller House (no longer extant) in 1915 and may have also designed the Fuller-Halsey House (15 Willow Avenue). Also based in Boston, architects Wales and Holt prepared designs for both the stable and house of Mrs. Charles Bell (48 Ocean Boulevard). The firm's other projects included residences in Cambridge and Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts and Center Sandwich and Cornish, New Hampshire. The design for the Bell House was featured in the Catalog of the Architectural Exhibition of the Boston Architectural Club and the Boston Society of Architects held at the St. Botolph Club from May 22-June 3, 1899. The architect for the French House (34 Willow Avenue), constructed in 1904, was Boston and Salem architect William G. Rantoul (1867-1948); he is best known as a practitioner of the Colonial Revival style. Active in Salem in the early 20th century he was responsible for additions and restorations to several Salem landmarks while also designing new Colonial Revival buildings including the Salem Atheneum on Essex Street (1906-7); the Francis Seamans House on Chestnut Street (1909) and the triple house at 31-35 Warren Street (1914-15) which took the place of the Tontine block, destroyed in the 1914 Salem Fire. In Manchester, Rantoul designed the Classical Revival Institute of Arts and Sciences for Mrs. French in 1916.
Well known landscape architects were also responsible for works in Little Boar's Head during this period. In 1927-8 Boston landscape architect Arthur A. Shurtleff (1870-1957; name changed to Shurcliff in 1930) prepared the initial design for what would become the front garden at Fuller Gardens. Between 1939 and 1941 the front garden was subsequently redesigned by the Olmsted Brothers (1898-1957), the successor firm to Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.'s practice. During this same period, the firm also prepared planting designs for the Fuller-Halsey House and Union Chapel although it is not clear what, if any, physical evidence remains today. Warren Manning (1860-1938), who was in charge of the Olmsted Brother's planting plans while he apprenticed with the office, prepared landscape designs for Alvan Fuller in 1918. It is not clear whether this would have been his house or Fuller Gardens.
By the early 20th century, the increased popularity of the automobile brought fewer transient summer guests to Little Boar's Head and other summer resorts of its type. Boarding houses began to close in the 1920s, the last of the boarding houses, Boynton's, endured until the 1950s. Albert Bachelder died in 1923 and his son, James L. Bachelder, died in 1926. Bachelder's Hotel was demolished in 1929. As a result of the Depression, some families had to give up their summer residences. After World War II, greater changes were evident as many new permanent residents came to Little Boar's Head. Today, there are only a few descendants of the old Little Boar's Head families and most of these are now permanent residents. Considerable new construction occurred within the village district beginning in the 1960s, including Old Locke Road. The wood lots which once lined Pond Path gave way to 23 new homes including those on Bradley Lane; an additional twenty residences were constructed on "Fifield Island," on what are now Appledore Avenue and Bolters Cove Avenue. Little Boar's Head possesses a remarkable degree of integrity. The historic center of the village district has survived with few intrusions and a high degree of architectural integrity which are only enhanced by the unspoiled coastline. A strong zoning ordinance, first enacted in 1937, has left Little Boar's Head virtually untouched by the commercial development which dominates other portions of the New Hampshire seacoast including neighboring Hampton. The evolution of the area has resulted in some significant losses over the years including the demolition of the only hotel serving Little Boar's Head, Bachelder's Hotel, in 1929 as well as the demolition of the Alvan Fuller House in 1961. In recent years new residential development has been concentrated at the north and southwest edges of the precinct, which had little historic development, thus lessening the impact on the historic core.
References
Books, Articles
"The Alvan T. Fuller House — Robert C. Coit, Architect," Architecture, v.42, August 1920, pp.261-264.
Fowler, William Plumer. "Looking Back at Little Boar's Head with a History of Union Chapel," reprinted from The Shore liner Magazine, August 1950.
Fowler, William. Union Chapel Centennial, 1977.
Fowler, William Plumer. Union Chapel, Little Boar's Head, New Hampshire: An Historical Sketch Written for the Occasion of the Chapel's 75th Anniversary, 1877-1952.
Giffen, Sarah L. and Kevin D. Murphy. "A Noble and Dignified Stream:" The Piscataqua Region in the Colonial Revival, 1860-1930. York: Maine: Old York Historical Society, 1992.
Hobbs, Stillman Moulton and Helen Davis Hobbs. The Way It Was In North Hampton: Some History, Sketches, and Reminiscences that Illuminate the Times of a New Hampshire Town. Portsmouth: Peter E. Randall, Publisher, 1994.
Hoffman, Malvina. Yesterday is Tomorrow: A Personal History. New York: Crown Publishers, 1965.
Lane, L.K.H. "Gems of the New Hampshire Shore," Granite Monthly, v.19, July 1895, pp.8-38.
North Hampton 250, 1742-1992: Commemorative Booklet and Program. North Hampton: 1992.
Parsons, Langdon B. History of Rye, New Hampshire. Concord, NH: Rumford Printing Co., 1905.
Tardiff, Olive. "Aunt Vonnie's Birds," New Hampshire Profiles, June 1972, p.52.
Tardiff, Olive. "Poet Ogden Nash: He Loved to Watch the Ocean in Motion," Exeter News-Letter, November 27, 1974.
Tolles, Bryant F. Jr. New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide. Hanover: University Press, 1979.
Withey, Henry F. & Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970.
Wood, James A. New Hampshire Homes. Concord, NH: 1895.
Miscellaneous
Bell, Lucy and others. "Bell Cottage" Log, 1860-1946 (typewritten).
Exeter News-Letter, various issues.
Fuller Gardens, miscellaneous materials.
North Hampton Historical Society. Photographic collection.
North Hampton Library, various materials in History Room.
Rockingham County Registry of Deeds, Brentwood, New Hampshire.
Rockingham County Registry of Probate, Brentwood, New Hampshire.
Southworth, Robert A. and Katherine, et al. "First Report of the Historic District Commission of the Village of Little Boar's Head," July 7, 1994.
Southworth, Robert A. "The Community of Little Boar's Head: A commentary about "how it was." Prepared for distribution to residents by the LBH Day Committee, June 1997.
Southworth, Robert A. Photographic collection.
Wheeler, Rebecca F. "The Alvan T. Fuller Summer Residence and the Fuller Gardens," Paper prepared for Radcliffe College, November 1989.
Maps
Chace, J. Jr. Map of Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Philadelphia: 1857.
Coast Walk and Tour. Undated map, 1977?
Hurd, D.H. & Co. Town and City Atlas of the State of New Hampshire. Boston: D.H. Hurd & Co., 1892.
Map of Little Boar's Head and Rye Beach Showing Location of New Hampshire Garden Clubs Festival. Concord, NH: NH State Highway Department, 1935.
Precinct Map, Little Boar's Head, North Hampton, New Hampshire, 1953, 1974, 1982 (updated 5/97).
Interviews/Additional Information
Brown, Margaret. Little Boar's Head. Interview, April 30, 1998.
Southworth, Robert A. and Katherine. Little Boar's Head. Interview, May 28, 1998.
West, Norman (nephew of Clifford Bryer). Telephone Interview, July 1998.
Additional information was provided by many local residents including but not limited to: E.J. Burnell, Nancy County, Ruth Earthrowl, Dr. Kenneth Emonds, Henry Fuller, Charles Gordon, Patricia Meyers, Phebe & Jim Mixter, Jane Rockwell, Robert Southworth, Katherine Southworth, and Charles Sullivan. Janice Mellian generously shared her previous research on several homes on Ocean Boulevard.
‡ Lisa Mausolf, consultant, Little Boars Head Historic District, Hampton, NH, nomination document, 1999, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Atlantic Avenue • Chapel Road • Ocean Boulevard • Route 111 • Route 1A • Sea Road • Willow Avenue