On the Market: A Saltbox Home with Views of Mount Monadnock
Surrounded by 39 acres of conserved land, this 1750 Ashburnham construction is a leaf peeper's paradise and an antique-lover's dream.
Photo via LandVest
75 – 79 Packard Hill Road, Ashburnham
Price: $595,000
Size: 2,297 square feet
Bedrooms: 3
Baths: 1.5
Before you step inside, the first thing you’ll probably notice about this saltbox home is the steeply sloped roof, allowing for two stories in the front, and one in the back. The American colonial style gets its name from another old-school relic: a salt box. The wooden receptacles once hung from the walls of kitchens, an angled lid preventing the grains from collecting moisture and hardening.
The home, built in 1750, is filled with antiquities of its own. The central chimney and the four fireplaces in the living room, dining room, and two bedrooms sit where they were when the building was constructed. Their mantels are antique, too, as are the paneling, exposed ceiling beams, and gorgeous wide pine floors.
And though it doesn’t date back to the home’s construction, the kitchen, last updated in the 1970s, fits in perfectly with the home’s throwback spirit. The wallpapers are also more recent additions, and help breathe new life into the old outline of some rooms—check out the bold paper that wraps the living room in blue floral wreaths.
The residence is fairly spacious, but the 39 acres of protected property contain additional properties. A Cape Cod-style caretaker’s cottage built in 1940 (practically modern by the main home’s standards) provides 1,700 square feet of additional living space, including three bedrooms and two bathrooms. On top of that, a summer house in the forest behind the home is made up of four rooms (one bedroom and one bathroom) and 855 square feet, plus a porch.
While much of the surrounding land is mature forest—a cornucopia of autumnal colors this time of year—about eight acres of fields border the house. Situated at the top of Packard Hill, the home affords cross-border sights of a distant Mount Monadnock. And if you like these views, get used to them: The property and its neighbor are both subject to permanent conservation, and it’s right next to the Ashburnham State Forest.
For information, contact Keith Ross, LandVest, Inc., landvest.com
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
Photo via LandVest
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