North Groton, New Hampshire
About the Tour
Mary Baker Eddy spent five years in this small cottage in the foothills of New Hampshire’s White Mountains (1855–1860). It was a difficult period, in which her marriage began to crumble, her finances grew increasingly precarious, her young son was taken away, and her health declined. Despite the struggles, it was here where she also experienced what she would later call her “first discovery of the Science of Mind.”
Your tour will introduce you to the labors and achievements of a remarkable woman who would go on to become one of the most famous in the United States. You’ll also learn about the house—one of the earliest in Longyear Museum’s collection—along with details of day-to-day life in the mid-19th century.
Tour also includes the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Rumney, New Hampshire, and begins there.
Tour duration: 90 minutes, plus 10 minutes of travel between the two houses
Location
29 Halls Brook Rd.
North Groton,
NH
03241
Admission
Adults (18+): $15 (includes tour of Rumney house)
Youths (7–17): $7.50
Children (under 7): Free
Members: Free (View membership information.)
For groups of 10 or more, or if you have questions, please call 617.278.9000.
Hours
May 1 through Oct. 31:
Open by appointment.
Please call 617.278.9000 to schedule a tour.
Minimum 72-hour (three-day) notice required.
Closed Thursday, June 11
Directions and Parking
Address:
29 Halls Brook Rd.
North Groton,
NH
03241
Parking:
Free parking is available.
Frequently Asked Questions
Neither the Rumney nor North Groton house is accessible. The tour involves standing, walking, some climbing of stairs, and only limited opportunity for sitting. If you will be accompanied by a service animal, please indicate this when you purchase tickets.
Backpacks and large bags are not permitted.
Food or drinks, including water bottles and children’s drink containers, are not permitted inside the houses.
Yes. Photography taken with a handheld device is permitted for personal use. Flash photography is not allowed, nor is the use of selfie sticks. No photos or videos, whether of the inside or outside, may be used or published in print or online for any commercial or academic purposes without permission. Professional/commercial photographers and members of the media should contact the Office of Communication at 617.278.9000, Ext. 250.
Strollers are not permitted in either house, and parents should plan on carrying very young children during the tour.
Free parking is available at both houses. Visitors are expected to provide their own transportation between the two houses.
Minimum 72-hour (three-day) notice is required. Tickets purchased are non-refundable but can be transferred to a different date. For assistance transferring your ticket, please call us at 617.278.9000.
Please meet at the Rumney house before traveling to the North Groton house to begin the tour. We recommend arriving at least 10 minutes ahead of your scheduled tour time. Bathroom facilities are available only at the Rumney house. There is no cell service at the North Groton house or on the road up to it.
More Mary Baker Eddy Historic Houses
The Story
In the late 1840s in Sanbornton, New Hampshire, the widowed Mary Baker Glover was in chronic ill health and often unable to care for her young son, George. Consequently, well-meaning relatives sent the boy away to live with family acquaintances, who lived in North Groton.
In 1853, Mary married Daniel Patterson, a dentist, who promised to provide a home for “Georgy.” However, he would not keep that promise. Dr. Patterson purchased this small house and the sawmill operation on the property in 1855, and the couple settled here, where Mary saw her son only occasionally. A year after they arrived, the foster family caring for the boy moved to the far West. Without seeking her permission, they took 11-year-old Georgy with them. He was told his mother had died.
During five mostly grim years here, Mrs. Eddy’s health declined. She was an often bedridden semi-invalid. Within these walls, however, intuitions about healing began. Seeking to recover from her ills, she experimented with various systems that promised cures, including G.H.G. Jahr’s Manual of Homeopathic Medicine. But for spiritual sustenance, she continued to look to her Bible, where she found solace, strength, and hope.
After her husband’s sawmill venture failed, the home and mill were foreclosed upon. Most of what the Pattersons owned was lost to creditors, and they were forced to move on.
Years Mary Baker Eddy Lived Here
1855–60
Highlight
Although these were difficult years for Mrs. Eddy, it was here that her first intuitions about healing began.
House Fact
The foundation of this small, four-room cottage was originally part of a grist mill.
The House
The Pattersons’ former home—a four-room cottage—nestles in a hollow that slopes down from the main road and bridge high above Hall’s Brook. The front door is just two steps above the ground, but to the rear, the land falls off steeply to the banks of the brook.
When historic preservation pioneer Mary Beecher Longyear found this house in 1920, it had long since been moved to an upland field. She had it returned to its former site by horse and sledge. The house has undergone several major renovations over the years, with a historically correct exterior restoration in 2002. In an overgrown, dried-up former sluice at the bottom of the property, researchers have uncovered the rusty remains of a 19th-century sawmill—Daniel Patterson’s failed venture.
The homes in North Groton and Rumney, New Hampshire, and Swampscott and Amesbury, Massachusetts—all where Mary Baker Eddy once lived and worked—form the earliest part of Longyear Museum’s collection.
