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15th out of 40 books
—
12 voters
Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House
by
Sarah Messer
What would it be like to grow up in a home suffused with three hundred years of another family�s history? When Sarah Messer�s parents impulsively purchased Red House from Richard Warren Hatch, the great-great-great-great-great grandson of the original owner, Walter Hatch, they acquired much more than a lovingly preserved colonial home. The house contained Hatch family jour...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
June 17th 2004
by Viking Adult
(first published 2004)
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This is a really marvelous book--written very much in the spirit of the "experimental narrative" forms with which many social scientists have approached their subjects in recent years. Where it departs from that tradition, however, is in the fact that the author grew up in the Red House and is not herself a historian, anthropologist, archaeologist, or preservationist. Thus, her connection to the site is first-person, loaded, potentially biased and most definitely circumscribed by the details con...more
This was a rather interesting story about the oldest continuously lived in house in New England that was supposedly built in 1647. Sarah Messer was the daughter of the man who purchased the house from the original family who'd owned it for generations. She grew up in the house, survived a fire in the house, moved away and returned to the house with her older sister to continue the restoration when her parents separated...so much life happened in this house that was a home to so many generations...more
Being the biographical history of the Red House, built on the North River at Two Mile, Massachusetts colony, by the puritan Walter Hatch and occupied by his descendents for over 300 years. Or rather, the book is a multigenerational love story of the owners' affection for this old house.
The book is structured as alternating vignettes of the Hatch families alternating with anecdotes of Sarah Messer's family, who bought the house from Richard Hatch and were in turn adopted by its legacy. A solid wo...more
The book is structured as alternating vignettes of the Hatch families alternating with anecdotes of Sarah Messer's family, who bought the house from Richard Hatch and were in turn adopted by its legacy. A solid wo...more
I'm not one for history (except when it comes to war). That being said, this is the first non-fiction piece I've ever read that managed to fuse what seems like nonsensical history together with an overall theme of meaning. I wasn't simply reading a book stating how tall the chimney of Red House is and what color it is, I was reading a book describing a house as though it was the main character.
Indeed, Red House is the main character in this story. The reader starts out becoming familiar with th...more
Indeed, Red House is the main character in this story. The reader starts out becoming familiar with th...more
For 325+ years, the Red House was passed through one family, the Hatches. In 1965, the first non-Hatch family purchased it, and this book was written by the daughter of those purchasers. The story alternates chapters about the Hatch family and the modern story of the new family and their experiences there.
I especially enjoyed the author's perspective on growing up in a historic house and the great lengths to which her parents went to take care of the house and ensure some level of historical ac...more
I especially enjoyed the author's perspective on growing up in a historic house and the great lengths to which her parents went to take care of the house and ensure some level of historical ac...more
Well written, well researched and very interesting, but only four stars because it seems a little haphazard in structure. I liked the way the author alternated between distant history versus more recent events, but it was difficult to follow the story lines because there were huge gaps in both. In some of the distant history, the focus was on the known events related to the house's inhabitants as opposed to the owner directly. The author seemed to want to focus on the owner of the house at a giv...more
In 1965, a house was for sale in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Built in the early 17th century, the house had been continuously lived in by the Hatch family until Richard Warren Hatch and his wife decided that they must give it up. Sarah Messer was a young child when her parents bought the house, and this is the story of Sarah growing up in the house with her siblings and parents. There were many additions built on the house through the years, and the house had also suffered damage from more than...more
As a New Englander, I enjoyed reading this non-fiction account glued together by a very old house in Marshfield, Massachusetts. The house was in the Hatch family for generations from the 1600s until the 1960s, when the author's non-Hatch family moved in, in spite of a will that intended for only Hatch family descendants to own and live in the property. Readers get brief, but revealing glimpses into the life and times of some of the inhabitants of this red house while accompanying the author on...more
I remember that I was in Seoul, Korea about two years ago, at the base library, when one of my fellow exercise participants (I forget who, sorry!) recommended this book to me. I suppose that's typical for me. I remembered the book, but not the person. ...sigh...
In any case, the simple title of the book stuck with me and I added it to my to-read list. It's a sad fact that even though I diligently put books from my to-read list into my on-hold list at the library, the to-read list seems to just gr...more
In any case, the simple title of the book stuck with me and I added it to my to-read list. It's a sad fact that even though I diligently put books from my to-read list into my on-hold list at the library, the to-read list seems to just gr...more
Loving this gem. House in Scituate, MA -- built in 1600s. In family for 8 generations (per mandate by initial patriarch, as noted in will hanging in house) until sold in 1960s. Writer was daughter of folks who bought the house from the family. Well-chosen extensive research. Stuff like: in colonial times, folks wore masks to protect their identities while drinking so they couldn't be identified and charged with public drunkeness. And other stuff: how to paint a house or make a yard of linen in t...more
Enjoyed the swap back and forth between the author's history in the house and the stories of the people who used to live there. The house is definitely a character. The way it was described helped me understand what life was like in the house from the late 17th century through the 1980s. Fascinating narrative that creatively mixes historical record with the history made as the author lived it.
Some of the reviewers found this book a bit slow, lacking a plot and exciting twists. However, I found it interesting. Having grown up in Massachusetts most likely helped (and overlooking the author's style of writing which could be obvious in several places but seemed to work in others). I am familiar with many of the towns, places, and buildings the author mentioned. I found the family histories, both current and past, laid out well in an alternating pattern - going from history to current tim...more
This is a true story about a house in Marshfield, supposedly one of the oldest in New England, and the families that have lived in it up to the present. Some of the historical pieces were really fascinating. Lots of interesting tidbits on Scituate/Marshfield that a townie would find intersting too.
Part memoir, part local history, with a seventeenth-century house at its center. The house is on Union Street, in Marshfield. Made me quite nostalgic for dear old Marshfield. The author’s voice didn’t really stand out from the mass of contemporary writers, I thought, but I enjoyed the book.
This was a fun read. It traces the history of a house in Massachusetts for over 300 years. The historical aspect and the biographic information are well executed and give a real vision of the house and the people who lived in her.
Interesting read with a mix of history and family history. The author does a good job of moving back and forth between the history of the home, land and family and the time period when she lived in the home with her family.
This was an amazing book, and made me wish for the sense of history these families lived with. This red house is the oldest continuously lived in house in America. It was built either in the late 1600s or early 1700s, depending on what source you look at. And the builder put in his will that it would stay in the family and be passed down through generations. And it was, until one man sold it to a family outside his genealogy in the 1960s. This book was written by the daughter of the man who boug...more
I did not love this one as much as I had hoped. This is one of those books that will be fabulous for the author's descendants (or the descendants of the Hatch family) but just seemed to fall flat for me.
Jul 28, 2008
Dave-O
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
constructionists
Recommended to Dave-O by:
a deconstructionist
Shelves:
nonfiction
A good read about collective and individual heritage and the weight they have. Messer's writing style flows well as she forms dramatic narratives out of fragments of history, all surrounding the Red House just outside of Scituate, Mass.
The House was passed through generations of the same family until it was bought by Messer's parents. She recalls growing up with drafty winters and near disasters and later, the house as a symbol of what she was rebelling against in her teenage and college years....more
The House was passed through generations of the same family until it was bought by Messer's parents. She recalls growing up with drafty winters and near disasters and later, the house as a symbol of what she was rebelling against in her teenage and college years....more
Aug 07, 2011
Betty
added it
I was captivated by this story of a house in Marshfield, MA and the generations of people who lived it in over three centuries.
It was a little all over the place, not sure what it wanted to be. Historical, memoir, what have you. Still interesting, just not what I expected.
The premise fizzled early. I couldn't finish it. I tried twice...
4.5 stars.
The parts about the house's 17th century origins and the ebbs and flows of the Hatcher family were great, but the author, whose family bought the house in the 1960s, spends far too much time on her annoying family and herself.
another
I really enjoyed this...a biography of sorts of a house and the family who assumes it's history.
I enjoyed this book for the most part although I found some parts to be more interesting than others rather than the story being engrossing straight through.
It's the history of a house (the Red House, in Scituate, Massachusetts), and the history of the descendents of the original builder. It's also about the family who bought the house in the 1960s, their relationship with the house, with the previous owners of the house, and with each other. It's really mostly an autobiographical story of a woman examining her life and her childhood in the Red House, and figuring out how it all fits together. A simple yet profound story.
I liked this book for the first half. It seemed to be going somewhere, but unfortunatly never did. The author grew up in a really old red house. Nothing that interesting happened to either the author or the house. Rather, interesting things did happen to both of them, but the author failed to find (or communicate) meaning in them. I was left annoyed with her and wondering why she thought she was so special that she should write a book about her uneventful life.
It's a bit longer than it should be, I think, but I did read all the way to the end. Overall, I liked it because a house, especially a very old one like the red house, is a repository for life.
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