New Boston Historical Society
New Boston, New Hampshire
The farm at 70 Gregg Mill Road dates back nearly 300 years
Behind the Door: 70 Gregg Mill Road
by James Johnston (August 2020)
On the right, just before reaching the house was the sawmill with its water-driven wheels built and rebuilt by generations of Greggs beginning in the 1730s. Daniel M. Gregg (great-great-great-grandfather of Senator/Governor Judd Gregg) operated the mill until his death in 1893.
Later that year the Boston musician/conductor/concert pianist/teacher/composer, Benjamin Johnson Lang (known as B.J.) bought the property for $4,694 as a summer home. During the next five years, eight additional purchases were made from properties adjoining the farm making it a total of about 500 acres.
B.J. wanted the property to be a working farm during his time there in the summers. He hired a farm manager who lived in the ell, which, as you look at the front of the house, is the one-story, two-bedroom building to the left. (I believe that this was the original Gregg home.)
After the Langs, a lumber company bought the property in the late 1920s, and then the Heaths became the owners in 1933, paying $3,400. They also used it for a summer home.
In 1971, Jay and Dottie Marden bought the farm and made it their permanent residence. After living there nearly 50 years, the property had come to mean so much to them that rather than move, they built a new home near where the mill had been, and then sold the rest of the property to the current owners, Mary and Bob Phillips.
The mill was torn down in the 1980s, but some of its beams were used in the new house, and Mr. Marden kept the mill wheels. The Marden family has been in New Boston for more than 200 years, from when Lemuel Marden built the first, and only, stone house in 1785—located on Route 13, it's now called Greystone Cottage.
The mill was a favorite place for the Langs. The outside had a tumble-down, old-fashioned appearance but it was a working mill; even today, the dam and sluiceway are still functioning. Mrs. Lang wrote in her diary, "It has been very exciting to see our Mill going, our farmer is cutting logs."
Inside, the second floor had been remodeled with a billiard room and a well-furnished music studio with two (some say three) grand pianos. This studio was where their oldest daughter, Margaret, composed many of the 130 art songs that were sung by the famous singers of the day such as Enrico Caruso.
On the mill's roof there was a weathervane that B.J. had bought in Bayreuth, Germany when he had visited the composer Wagner. There was also another grand piano in the house, and they all were in constant use. There were two other children, Malcolm and Rosamond. They both played the piano and both composed music.
The property consists of the original ell, the main house of five bedrooms, and a dining room with original stenciling done by the 19th century itinerant artist Moses Eaton during the winter of 1810. Attached to the house are five connected barns: carriage house, hay barn, cow barn, house stable, and equipment barn; well planned for the New England winters. The farmer went directly from the house into the first barn. The Langs had horses, cows, sheep, poultry, and dogs.
In order to preserve this area, Lang Station State Forest was established. It is an area of 226 acres that begins at Route 13 on either side of Gregg Mill Road and then continues north after the farm along the east side of the Middle Branch of the Piscataquog River for about three miles. It is this waterway that flows beside the property and forms the pond beside the house. This property was deeded to the state by the Mardens in 1993.
About the author: Jim Johnston was born and raised in New Hampshire and now resides in Bradenton, Florida. He would like to pass along direct thanks to Jay Marden as well as indirect thanks to "The Moseyer" of Yankee magazine and Robert Todd for this report.
Click here to return to the main page for "Behind the Door" articles.
