Bringing the Paul Wentworth House Home

This site tells the story of the return of the Col. Paul Wentworth House (c. 1701) to its original home. Originally built in Rollinsford, New Hampshire it was removed from town in 1936 and rebuilt in Dover, Massachusetts and has been missing from the town’s landscape for almost 70 years.

House owner, Ken Rendell, generously donated the house to the town in 2002. During the months of September and October of 2002, historic building specialist, Stephen Bedard, worked with his crew in Dover, MA, to dismantle the Wentworth house and return it to its native soil in Rollinsford. Steve was hired to take the dwelling apart, piece by piece, and transport it back to NH, where it it has been reassembled within sight of its original lot.

This poem was written by an unknown Rollinsford resident about 1860.

Among the dwellings of that day
 Which here and there are strewn,
One has survived the shock of time,
and only one alone.

Firmly that reverend mansion stands,
That relic of the past,
Borne down to us through rolling years,
With shades upon it cast.

And could it speak, what tales would tell --
Tales of another age;
Those that were never sung in song,
Or penned on history's page

Long may it stand in years to come,
On it we love to gaze,
The moss of time has gathered there,
And dust of ancient days.