Visiting a very interesting piece of property in Keene

The Monday before my trip to Dallas with Duane to visit my daughter, Andrea and her family, Al Stoops and I visited the Meyers property on Daniels Hill Road in Keene.  The Monadnock Conservancy holds a conservation easement on the property and I have taken on the responsibility to monitor the property once a year.

Al and I arrived early on an overcast morning and I met the landowners, Anne and Delbert Meyers to let them know we would be walking the easement.  It was a fairly easy walk around the boundaries.  The only excitement was the pigs that came to greet us on the southern boundary.   They seemed a little agitated to see us but the stone wall that separated us from them kept them at bay.   Within an hour, we had walked the boundaries and I returned to the Meyers to let them know we had finished.

As I greeted them, I noticed an unusual feature in their home: a "cauldron" or tub built into the structure of the chimney and brick oven fireplace, with a firebox underneath.  I asked Ann and Del to tell me about it.  Turns out that the tub was used to melt wax with bayberries to make bayberry candles.  In addition, the house had another fireplace with a brick oven (or what we used to call a Dutch oven) and a room that went under the structure of the chimney.  I asked Al to come in and see the fireplaces, ovens, and the tub and we began a fascinating visit with Ann and Del about the history of their house.

Turns out that the house was originally located on West Street in Keene and was known as the Cooke House.  A large elm tree, known as the Cooke Elm, sat in front of the house on West Street.  It was so large and stately that the road was diverted around the tree rather than removing the elm.

The Meyers have a huge scrapbook with photos and newspaper clippings detailing the move.  In the 1970s, when the Meyers moved from Ohio and bought the house, the Colony family told them that the house would have to be moved or torn down.  The land was slated for development (a bank now sits on the property where the Cooke House once stood.).

So the Meyers decided to move the house, which had stood since the late 1700s.  The move was a slow and complicated task, as one would expect.  Utility wires had to be moved, traffic diverted, and the house stood at the end of Main Street while the Meyers figured out how to arrange to get the house up Daniels Hill Road to the land where it now sits.

The moving company assured the Meyers that they would be able to get the house up Daniels Hill Road to the planned site, but they found that they couldn't maneuver one corner and had to bring the house back down the hill and regroup.  It was decided that the Meyers would have to build a temporary road through the woods.  It was a precarious trip up the hill, even with the new road.  At one point the house began to teeter and had to be cabled to trees and further re-enforced as it made its slow trip up the hill.

Needless to say, after months of work, the house made it to its final destination and now looks as if it had always been there.   It is beautiful and fascinating both inside and out, and we were honored to meet its intrepid owners, Ann and Del Meyers and hear their amazing story.  

Sometimes, it's more than okay to do less outside exploration and spend more time visiting and learning about the people whose paths we are blessed to cross along the way.