Most Interesting Homes in New England
Join Yankee as we visit the inspiring location of a classic childhood story and walk the same paths as some of our most beloved characters.
By Yankee Staff|Apr 02 2020|
Join us as we take a pictorial journey into some of the most fascinating historical homes in New England.
The swing still hangs by the barn doorway, and there may or may not be a spider spinning her web in the darker corners of the rafters in one of our favorite, and famous, historic homes in New England. The house at Allen Cove, a small inlet in Blue Hill Bay, sparkles in the sunlight. There are gardens of flowers so beautiful that the eye goes to them even before settling on the sturdy white clapboard farmhouse that has stood there for more than 200 years. E.B. White wrote some of the most enduring words in American literature while living on this 40-acre-plus saltwater farm in Maine. For the past three decades, the Gallant family have made it their own. “I’m sure you want to do the Charlotte’s Web thing,” Mary Gallant says, and quickly ushers Yankee editor Mel Allen to the barn and sheds that once housed the Whites’ hay, sheep, geese, chickens, pigs and (of course) spiders, and probably a rat or two. The barn itself also provided the setting for one of the most beloved children’s books of all time.
The interior of the barn, looking out to the fields. Hanging in the doorway is the rope swing made famous in E.B. White’s 1952 children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web.
Credit: Mark FlemingCredit: Mark Fleming There is that rope swing, immortalized in Charlotte’s Web as the one from which Fern and her brother launched themselves from the loft. “Here’s where Wilbur’s trough would have been”, Mary says, and “right here”—she points—“is the hole where I tell children Templeton the rat would scurry back and forth.”
To get an insider’s look at the magnificent c. 1795 farmhouse and barn, made famous in the 1952 classic, Charlotte’s Web, and the boathouse where E.B. White often did his writing, continue reading The House at Allen Cove: E.B. White House Tour —one of many great guides in our Yankee Special Collection: Historic Home Tours.
If you want to tour more historic homes, like a 1784 post-and-beam Cape, or an intriguing mid-century Colonial ranch, our Yankee Special Collection: Historic Home Tours takes you inside these quintessential New England homes. With your Yankee All-Access Charter Membership, you have full access to everything in the Yankee Special Collection: Historic Home Tours, including:- Farmhouse Style on a Budget: A 19th-Century New Hampshire Home, where you’ll find out why 100,000 people virtually visit this home each month.
- How an overgrown home on a dirt road became a polished work-and-live space, in An Ideal Setting: An 18th-Century Rhode Island Cape.
- The country’s leading advocate for aquamarine kitchens and formica, in Fifties & Fabulous: A Marvelous Midcentury Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts.
- Why a house built in 1984 looks like it’s straight out of the 1700’s, in The Oldest New House in New England.
Historic buildings along the Salem Maritime National Historic site includes the Custom House at center.
Credit: Mark FlemingCredit: Mark Fleming [preview_boilerplate]
