Thomas Leavitt House

Facing southwest and resting on a granite foundation, I was built in 1753 as the homestead of Benjamin Leavitt and inherited by his son Thomas Leavitt. I remained with the Leavitt family until 1875.  There are five working fireplaces; the largest is in the Keeping Room where meals were prepared, wool spun and reading done by candlelight.

I have a secret room behind a wall on the first floor that was used to hide from Native American attacks. My wide pine floors were made from lumber harvested from the two hundred-acre woods that once surrounded me. Across the road is the original five floor barn that once housed dairy cows. Today, you can see sheep and a horse grazing in these same fields.

Thomas Leavitt, Esquire claimed to have cast the first Democratic vote in Hampton Falls. A single daughter of Benjamin Leavitt, Hannah, was heartbroken when this house was sold in 1875 and she had to go live in Exeter with a sister. To this day, when copper kettles hanging from the fireplace start to clang, it is said that Hannah’s kind but determined spirit remains here in her beloved home.