In 1969, Arthur and Ruth Knapp gave the Society the small dwelling of Reuben Whitten, whose charity saved his neighbors from hardship and starvation in the Cold Year of 1816. In 1970, the Society persuaded the voters of Ashland to accept Dr. George Hoyt Whipple’s gift of the Whipple House for use as a local historical museum. The Reuben Whitten House was moved to the Whipple House grounds, where it has been partly restored. The Society voted to accept the Ashland Railroad Station from Vera Curley in 1979 and the Glidden Toy Museum from Pauline E. Glidden in 1989.
The Society has also raised funds for the construction of the Squam River Covered Bridge and the restoration of the Civil War Monument. From April through November the Society offers a number of meetings with programs on local, regional and state history. All programs are open to the public free of charge. The Society also sponsors special events, including fundraisers and an annual Christmas party. Programs and events are listed in the Community Calendar in this web site.
The Society may be contacted by mail at P.O. Box 175, Ashland, NH 03217 or by calling (603) 968-7716.
MEMBERSHIP
Ashland Historical Society membership is open to all. Dues are $10 per year or $100 for a life membership. Dues or contributions to the Society to further its work and maintain its museums may be addressed to the Ashland Historical Society at P.O. Box 175, Ashland NH 03217.
WHIPPLE HOUSE MUSEUM
The Whipple House was built in 1837 by Obadiah Smith and was occupied by five generations of the same family for 133 years. In 1970, George Hoyt Whipple, of the fourth generation of the family, gave his boyhood home to the Town of Ashland to be preserved and used as an historical museum.
Obadiah Smith was a merchant and entrepreneur. His oldest daughter, Frances Moody Smith, married George Hoyt and lived in the other side of the two-family house. Their daughter, Frances Anna Hoyt, married Dr. Ashley Cooper Whipple and had two children, George H. and Ashley C.. Ashley, named for her late father, married Charles Gavin Platt. The three Platt daughters, Frances, Elizabeth, and Dorothy, were the fifth generation to live in the house.
The twelve-room house was originally built as a two-family dwelling. The central hallway divides the house into two portions, each consisting of a large kitchen, a dining room, a parlor and three upstairs bedrooms. Many features of the house show a quality of construction unusual for its time. Museum exhibits include period rooms and local history displays.
The Whipple House Museum is located just off Main Street (U.S. Route 3) at 14 Pleasant Street in downtown Ashland.
The museum hours are 1-4 P.M. Wednesdays and Saturdays, July through Labor Day.
The museum is free of charge, although donations are welcome.
For more information on the Whipple House Museum, call (603) 968-7716.
DR. GEORGE H. WHIPPLE
George Hoyt Whipple was born in this house in 1878 and spent his boyhood here. He attended Phillips Andover Academy, Yale, and Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he received the M.D. degree in 1905. With the exception of one year as a pathologist for the Panama Canal project, Dr. Whipple then worked in the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins, becoming a professor in 1909. In 1914, he became director of the Hooper Foundation for Medical Research and Professor of Research Medicine at the University of California at Berkeley.
In 1921, Dr. Whipple was invited to Rochester, N.Y. to design, staff, and organize a new medical school at the University of Rochester. He served as its dean until 1953. Dr. Whipple had a distinguished career as a pathologist, medical educator and researcher. He shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1934 with Drs. George F. Minot and William P. Murphy for discoveries leading to a cure for pernicious anemia. Dr. Whipple died in Rochester at the age of 97 in 1976.
PAULINE E. GLIDDEN TOY MUSEUM
The Pauline E. Glidden Toy Museum is located in one of Ashland’s oldest residences, a circa 1810 cape. Funds for the purchase and renovation of this historic building were given by Mrs. Glidden. The museum opened to the general public on July 3, 1991. Visitors can view and enjoy more than two thousand antique toys that Mrs. Glidden collected and donated to the museum.
The tastefully displayed toy collection is considered one of the best in northern New England. Items date back to the 1850 nesting blocks telling the story of Who Killed Cock Robin? The museum boasts a wonderful doll collection with such favorites as Sunbonnet Babies, Shirley Temple and Raggedy Ann, a large collection of tin toys with many kitchen and laundry items, miniature appliances and furniture, Royal Bayreuth china, children’s books and prints, game boards, push and riding toys, trucks and steam trains, and a variety of other interesting and rare pieces. One museum room is furnished as an old-fashioned schoolroom.
The Glidden Toy Museum faces Main Street, but is entered from the Whipple House grounds on Pleasant Street.
The museum hours are 1-4 P.M., Wednesdays through Saturdays, in July and August.
A one-dollar donation is requested of non-members over the age of 12.
Group tours by appointment.
For more information on the Glidden Toy Museum, call (603) 968-7289
ASHLAND RAILROAD STATION MUSEUM
The Ashland Historical Society’s newest museum opened in 1999. The building was originally built circa 1869 as a passenger station by the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad. That railroad merged with the Concord Railroad in 1890 to form the Concord & Montreal Railroad. In 1891, the new railroad moved the station onto a new foundation and remodeled it to its present appearance.
The Concord & Montreal Railroad came under the control of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1895. For decades, the station was the gateway to Ashland and the Squam Lakes region for most travelers. Then, in the middle of the 20th century, the car and the plane supplanted the train. Regular passenger service to Ashland ended in October of 1959. In 1960, the Boston & Maine Railroad sold the station to Joseph Curley. His widow, Vera Curley, donated the property to the Ashland Historical Society in 1980.
In 1997-98, the building was restored and renovated for use as a railroad museum and a meeting place for the Society under ISTEA, a federal aid transportation program administered by the N.H. Department of Transportation. It was dedicated as a museum on June 26, 1999. The museum is one of the best preserved late 19th century railroad stations in New Hampshire and houses a growing collection of railroad artifacts, pictures, and documents. The local scenic railroad occasionally stops at the Ashland station during their popular excursions.
The Railroad Station Museum is located at 69 Depot Street, on Route 132, in Ashland village, about a half mile south of the junction of Routes 3 and 132.
The museum hours are 1-4 P.M. on Saturdays in July and August.
There is no admission charge, but donations are always welcome.
For more information on the Railroad Station Museum, call (603) 968-3902.
