December, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



475 



"Indian Hill' 



By Esther Singleton 



JBOUT thirty-five miles from Boston, and 

 four from Newburyport, there stands one 

 of the most picturesque, unique and oldest 

 houses in this country of beautiful homes. 

 It may be compared in interest only with 

 Mount Vernon, and we are tempted to men- 

 tion Sir Horace Walpole's "little jewel- 

 box, v "Strawberry Hill," on the same page. 



Beautiful indeed is this house — low, rambling and ir- 

 regular, that bursts upon the sight, crowning the hill where 

 the red men once gathered for their folk-motes. Emerald 

 lawns, graveled roads, masses of blooming flowers, turrets, 

 low roofs, jutting-out corners, chimneys crowned with 

 chimney-pots, casement windows with tiny panes, and clumps 

 of trees, make one think of an English manor house ; but 

 above the clock-tower stands a figure on the weather-vane 

 which we should never see on the other side of the ocean — 

 the figure of an Indian with drawn bow in hand. 



This estate consists of four hundred acres, and there are 

 no less than eighty rooms within the house. These lead from 

 one to another in the strange fashion one would expect from 

 looking at the exterior, down unexpected flights of stairs, 

 through archways, up quaint staircases, down narrow L- 

 shaped passages — all with low ceilings that delight the heart 

 and render each room a cozy retreat. Many of the rooms 

 are paneled, and all are furnished with oak, mahogany or 

 rosewood of Colonial and Revolutionary times. 



The original grant of this estate was from the Indians to 

 an ancestor of the celebrated Major Ben : Perley Poore 



about 1670, and has remained in the family ever since. The 

 reason for this grant was that the original Poore, a refugee 

 from political persecution in England, and who was engaged 

 in driving a sort of stage wagon between the colonies be- 

 low and above Boston, was attacked by Indians, who de- 

 stroyed his wagon and killed his oxen; and, as an indemnity 

 for this violation of the right of carriers, they were com- 

 pelled to grant Mr. Poore a tract of land on the Merrimac 

 River. This quaint document, signed by several Indian 

 chiefs, granting Indian Hill to the Poore family, is still 

 among the archives in this historic house. 



Indian Hill is the highest point of land along the coast, 

 and was famous as the gathering place of the Massachusetts 

 tribes, the red blaze of whose signal fires lit up the sky from 

 the White Mountains to Cape Cod. A beautiful view is 

 had from its summit : Newbury, Newburyport, Plum Island, 

 the Isle of Shoals, and the dim outlines of Cape Ann, on the 

 east; beautiful farms and the towns of Rowley, Ipswich and 

 Georgetown, on the south ; the distant hills of New Hamp- 

 shire, on the west; and the hills that half conceal the towns 

 of Amesbury and Salisbury on the north. 



The Indians made a reservation of land for themselves; 

 and for years continued to be the peaceful neighbors of the 

 Poore family. Mr. Poore took his family to dwell there in 

 the newly built stone house on the hill; and ever since that 

 time the Poores have resided here. We can learn the ap- 

 pearance of the first home on Indian Hill from the pen of 

 Major Ben: Perley Poore, the last male owner. He says: 

 "Let me invite you to go back in imagination two hundred 



Vines, wall and trees 



Arches are cut through leafy aisles 



