Robert Frost Farm (Derry, New Hampshire)

Robert Frost Farm

The Robert Frost Farm
Nearest city Rockingham Road, Derry, New Hampshire
Coordinates 42°52′18″N 71°17′42″W / 42.87167°N 71.29500°W / 42.87167; -71.29500Coordinates: 42°52′18″N 71°17′42″W / 42.87167°N 71.29500°W / 42.87167; -71.29500
Area 13 acres (53,000 m2)
Built 1900
NRHP Reference # 68000008
Significant dates
Added to NRHP May 23, 1968[1]
Designated NHL May 23, 1968[2]

The Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, is a connected farm that was the home of poet Robert Frost from 1900 to 1911. Today it is a New Hampshire state park in use as a historic house museum. The property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Robert Frost Homestead.[2]

History

Frost lived in the house from the fall of 1900 until it was sold in November 1911.[3] The majority of the poems collected in his first two books, A Boy's Will and North of Boston, were written here.[3] Many of the poems in his 1916 collection Mountain Interval were also written at the Derry farm.[4] Frost once said, "There was something about the experience at Derry which stayed in my mind, and was tapped for poetry in the years that came after."[5]

Elliott, first son of Frost and his wife Elinor, died on the farm in 1900 at age four, likely due to influenza.[6] The other children were educated at home by their parents. Lesley Frost later recalled she was "taught the alphabet on a typewriter... My mother taught the organized subjects, reading (the phonetic method), writing (then known as penmanship), geography, spelling. My father took on botany and astronomy."[7]

A hired man named Carl Burrell (and, occasionally, Burrell's father) assisted with farming duties like building hen coops, tending livestock, and picking apples and pears.[8] Locals thought Frost was lazy as a farmer.[6] He later recalled that they were correct: "I always liked to sit up all hours of the night planning some inarticulate crime, going out to work when the spirit moved me, something they shook their heads ominously at, with proper prejudice. They would talk among themselves about my lack of energy. I was a failure in their eyes from the start."[8]

The family moved out in the fall of 1909 to rented lodgings in Derry Village while Frost taught at the Pinkerton Academy. They later moved to Plymouth, New Hampshire so that Frost could teach at the Plymouth Normal School.[9]

Modern history

The property, originally owned by Frost's grandfather, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968.[2][10] The property is a New Hampshire state park.[11]

It is located on the east side of Rockingham Road (New Hampshire Route 28), 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Derry Village. It is open to the public seasonally.

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 "Robert Frost Homestead". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
  3. 1 2 Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999: 73. ISBN 0-8050-6341-2.
  4. ↑ Pritchard, William H. Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. Oxford University Press, 1993 (reprint): 134. ISBN 0-87023-838-8.
  5. ↑ Shmidt, Shannon McKenna and Joni Rendon. Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West. National Geographic Society, 2008: 48. ISBN 978-1-4262-0454-8.
  6. 1 2 Francis, Lesley Lee. Robert Frost: An Adventure in Poetry, 1900–1918. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2004: 15. ISBN 0-7658-0825-0.
  7. ↑ Francis, Lesley Lee. Robert Frost: An Adventure in Poetry, 1900–1918. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2004: 27. ISBN 0-7658-0825-0.
  8. 1 2 Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999: 74. ISBN 0-8050-6341-2.
  9. ↑ Francis, Lesley Lee. Robert Frost: An Adventure in Poetry, 1900–1918. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2004: 34. ISBN 0-7658-0825-0.
  10. ↑ Polly M. Rettig and John D. McDermott (January 6, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination:" (pdf). National Park Service. and Accompanying 3 photos, exterior, from 1975. (783 KB)
  11. ↑ "Robert Frost Farm". New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
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