• Twice-seen image, 2009. 

    The paving stones are all that are left of the arbor that framed a view of Little Harbor from the end of the salt-water swimming pool.

    The Arbor
    603,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    "He was a wonderful goat, as he butted everyone but me and Katrine, and was capable of tremendous speed when headed homeward."

    --Mary Coolidge Perkins, Once I Was Very Young.

     

    Billie the Goat
    599,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    "Louise flatly refused to take anything off, 'fairies or no fairies.'  She said that last time she had posed for me I had got her so scratched up that she still had the marks."  (Mary Coolidge Perkins, Once I Was Very Young.)

    Contemporary photograph taken at the annual Lilac Festival at the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion.

    Sprites
    697,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    "Katrine and I were to be King and Queen of the fairies, and Mrs. Jack [Isabella Stewart] Gardner was coming on the train from Boston to see the play..."  The play was performed at Creek Farm, an estate adjacent to the old mansion.

    A Formal Entertainment
    661,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Molly set up her siblings in tableaux for her photographs, sometimes trying their patience. 

    The Apple
    684,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    The day of the wedding it had rained for a week and the grass hadn't been mowed.

    The Wedding
    354,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    "As we went barefoot always, our feet and legs were dark with sunburn and were genuinely scratched by brambles and rocks, our faces and arms being equally brown."  (Mary Coolidge Perkins, Once I Was Very Young.)

    Portraiture
    625,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    The small pool below the house was filled with water from the harbor below.  It was surrounded with a dense hedge of lilacs to allow the family to bathe in privacy.

    The Saltwater Pool
    700,444
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    The Coolidges read aloud in the parlor every afternoon and kept the electricity off.

    The Parlor
    700,446
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Governor Wentworth's "Council Chamber" features an ornate mantelpiece copied from a contemporary French design book.  Katrine Coolidge reads by the fireplace.

    The Council Chamber
    696,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    John Templeman Coolidge was a dilletante as a painter but a serious collector of artists as well as art work, and was a founder of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  His children, and their children, remained artists in a variety of media.  The site continues to attract artists, and an art school and gallery have operated in a newer building on the property in the summers.

    Molly and Leann
    367,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    "Katrine and I used to enjoy getting up little entertainments for them." (Mary Coolidge Perkins, Once I Was Very Young.)

    The Nursery
    609,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    John Templeman Coolidge came to the mansion after his honeymoon (six years in Paris) with his first wife.  He raised two families there.  There are three generations in this picture.

    In Memory
    625,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Another generation kept the place together while the family gradually dispersed.

    Boys' Life
    700,466
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Kodachromes from the 1940s record the last decade of the Coolidge years.  In 1954 the Coolidge family gave the property to the State of New Hampshire as a public park and historic landmark.

    The Anchor
    666,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Molly, third from the right, back for a visit.

    Kite Flying
    648,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Messing about in boats began young for the Coolidges.

    By the Boathouse
    700,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    The pier is long gone, though its foundation stones still stand out at low tide.  The angel has migrated to some other family property.

    Pier Angel
    681,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    From the shore at the mansion you can look upriver to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

    Shipbuilding
    366,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    The Coolidge family bought the island across Little Harbor from the mansion, which became the site of many sailing and camping adventures for the youngsters and their friends from Boston.  "As long as you stay on this side of the island," they were told.

    Going to the Island
    634,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    Today the island is also part of the state park.  The summer places the Coolidges maintained are gone and overgrown, old foundations in impenetrable brambles. 

    Looking Back
    726,470
    Price On Request
  • Twice-seen image, 2009.

    The old gentleman muses on time and boats.

    J. T. Coolidge at the Boathouse
    536,470
    Price On Request
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