The Messenger House

This colonial house is diagonally across in a southwest direction from the Town Hall on the south side of Rt. 123 North, in view of the Stoddard Congregational Church, and directly across from the Old Parsonage.

The original house was built by Stearns Foster who moved in from across the street, presumably from the house he built in 1824 (see White House). Later Marshall and Fannie Messenger raised a family of six in its four rooms and kitchen extension. By the time of Pierce’s 1892 map, the house belonged to Josiah M. Rice. In 1929-30, architect Howard Goodspeed from Boston remodeled it and added extensively to the house, taking down the old barns in order to expand at the rear of the house.

His son Balcolm lived there for many years until is was sold to Dawn and William Matthews and became a bed and breakfast (1978-1982) called the Pitcher Mountain Inn with a fine, gourmet restaurant written up in the September, 1980 issue of Gourmet  [Preface, Pitcher Mountain In Cookbook, 1985]. It has since become a private home again.