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.

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.

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.

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.

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

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.)

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.

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

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.

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.

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

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.

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

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.

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

Twice-seen image, 2009.

Messing about in boats began young for the Coolidges.

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.

Twice-seen image, 2009.

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

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.

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. 

Twice-seen image, 2009.

The old gentleman muses on time and boats.