Newton, NH - The Carriage Barn Equestrian Center, is very pleased to announce the acquisition of the Kettle Carriage House, Weston, MA. This structure is one of the very few unrestored carriage houses still intact in New England. It currently has been stored, board-by-board, in five tractor-trailers. We will begin cataloging its timbers and doing architectural renderings over the next three months. Our hope is to place this structure on a lovely knoll adjacent to our outdoor arena and trail system. Hopefully it will house and display our carriages and provide stabling for visitors. Some of the artifacts from this historic structure will be on display in the community room at The Carriage Barn during our upcoming clinics.

"A fringe of elms protects the house from a view of the street, except at one point, and a winding driveway through the trees leads to the mansion on the hill. There are 45 acres in this estate, and from the hilltop, where the house stands, there is a fine view of the distant hills, and the estate of Grant Walker" -- 1902 Boston Sunday Herald account of the Weston estate of Lorenzo N. Kettle, located off what is now Claridge Drive.

Some years after he established his new home here, Kettle built a carriage house on his property, to store his carriage, his steeds, and as a quarters for those who worked the estate. Today, efforts are underway to preserve Kettle's carriage house and recreate it as a country home.

A nearly century old, colonial-style carriage house on Claridge Drive --a historical reminder of days bygone -- stood at the brink of destruction. Like other carriage homes, barns, and similar structures, it faced impending doom to make way for a new, grandiose single-family home.

However, this particular carriage house, built in about 1910, has been given a reprieve. Every effort is being taken to carefully dismantle the eight-room, 4,200 square foot carriage house and rebuild it at another location.

In 1891, Kettle, a Boston businessman, purchased and built his country estate on Boston Post Road near the corner of Love Lane. Kettle purchased the land from farmer Edward Sibley, whose family homestead was located across the street, according to Pamela Fox, town preservation consultant.

The Kettle mansion was designed by Samuel Mead, a young architect who moved to Weston in 1891, Fox said. Kettle's land extended to Love Lane and included all of what is now Claridge Drive. Kettle is listed in the 1893 directory as a wool merchant in Boston. He maintained a Boston residence at 687 Boylston Street. The Weston property was operated as a gentleman's farm until after World War II.

— Excerpts from "Rebuilding History," The Weston Town Crier & TAB, January 29, 1998

2/2000

Click here to watch the Kettle Carriage House being rebuilt at Sarah's Way in Newton, NH - Jan. 2001