Garden Cottage Exterior Preservation Project at Hamilton House

Historic New England is undertaking an exterior preservation campaign at the Garden Cottage to resolve leaks and address the structure’s deterioration:

• The structure’s wood shingle roof will be replaced in kind.
• Wooden v-trough gutters will be removed and replaced with a larger gutter system to improve the structure’s ability to shed water and its resilience to extreme weather. (Specifications for replacement will apply the findings of Historic New England’s 2018 historic gutter study, which analyzed the carrying capacities of our gutter systems against historic and present-day climate data, and concluded that inadequate gutters should not be replaced in-kind.)
• On all three chimneys, we will remove deteriorated and weathered mortar and fill chimney flashing joints and open mortar joints.
• Sixteen historic windows will be professionally conserved.

About the Garden Cottage

The Garden Cottage was built by the Tyson family in 1907 as place to entertain in their elaborate Colonial Revival garden. It was constructed almost entirely from salvaged materials, primarily from an 18th century home in Newmarket, New Hampshire that was slated for demolition. Today, the Garden Cottage serves as the site’s visitor center and conveys the early 20th century public’s fascination with colonial American history.

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Project goals:

• Eliminate physical threats to the preservation of the Garden Cottage, including damage to the interior caused by water infiltration.
• Advance our institutional resiliency and climate action goals.
• Ensure that we can continue to leverage the site’s intact Colonial Revival plan to tell the story of the Tysons’ era and the history of architecture and design as an expression of local, regional, and national moods.

The project is supported by generous grants from:

• Davis Family Foundation
• The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (sponsored by the Rebecca Emery Chapter, Biddeford, Maine)

Become a member of Historic New England or donate to the Preservation Maintenance Fund to support the ongoing care of the Garden Cottage and all Historic New England sites!