A Little Unsettled : Hampton House on the Move Again

By Melody Dahl, Hampton Correspondent

The Portsmouth Herald, Thursday, November 3, 1966

[The following article is courtesy of The Portsmouth Herald, and Bernard L. Dunbrack, Hampton Academy Class of 1953]

JOURNEYING HOUSE -- A 125-year-old landmark house was moved last week for the third time in a little over a century in Hampton. It is the so-called Nudd House. It's shown in the top picture (about center) at the end of the last century at Great Boar's Head, along with the old Dumas Hotel, Leavitt Hotel, and the Guyon cottage, the latter still standing. The old picture belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Lamprey of 297 Winnacunnet Road. Picture at bottom shows the house at end of the move last week to the corner of Landing and Winnacunnet Roads.

HAMPTON -- If a house could talk, one such house in Hampton might have groaned -- "Oh, no! not again!" Last week this 125-year-old landmark was moved, for the third time, to a site near the corner of Landing and Winnacunnet Roads here.

The story of the "unsettled" house goes something like this:

The Nudd family, who were among the earlier settlers in this area, originally built the big 12-room garrison on the lower part of Landing Road, near the present location of the boat club, during the mid-1800s.

There, it was used as part of the historic salt works. Sometime during the latter part of that century people began to settle out on Great Boar's Head, north of Hampton Beach, and this house was moved from its Landing Road location across the frozen marsh out to Boar's Head.

There it remained and was occupied by several generations of Nudds and their tenants until 1947 when it was moved up town to Winnacunnet Road to make a home for Mrs. Minerva Nudd.

Last winter Mrs. Nudd sold her home to the telephone company which has an exchange next door. The company was only interested in the land and when Bernard Barteau, a local builder, heard that they were going to demolish the house, he bought it and moved it to its present location -- Landing Road again!

When called for information on the history of the house last week, Mrs. Nudd, who now resides with her daughter, Mrs. Henrietta Russell of Melrose, Mass., was very interested to hear about the latest trip of her former home which she occupied for almost 20 years.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Lamprey of 297 Winnacunnet Road, who watched last week's operation with much interest, offered the above picture to the Herald for publication. It was taken some years ago showing the house at its Boar's Head location.

Moving a house as big as this is quite an operation but Robert and Curtis Wilmot of Salisbury, who specialize in this type of work, weren't the least bit nervous. It seems that the brothers had a "repeat" customer since they were the ones who moved it from Boar's Head in 1947.

Also busy at the scene were the electric company, the telephone company and the Hampton Fire Department. All were involved, in disconnecting wires and rejoining them as the house made its slow journey up Winnacunnet Road and s-l-o-w-l-y rounded the bend at Landing Road.