Thursday, October 4, 2007

Name this House


This small oil painting is of the original Smith/Moody House. Including the pine wood frame it measures 10 ¼” x 12 ¼”. Given to the Academy by George N. Whipple, a member of Class of 1874, the painting was probably completed in the same year. According to the yellowed paper label glued to the back of the frame, the canvas was “Painted by his friend-Mrs. Chamberlain.”

In 1800, Isaac Smith, Headmaster of Dummer Academy 1790-1809, purchased the house and moved it to campus for use as his own residence. In December 1914, the Smith house accidentally caught fire and burned. It was quickly rebuilt on the same sight, in the same architectural style, and renamed Moody House. Eighty years later, during the summer of 1995, the building was lifted off its foundation and moved from old Elm Street, to its present day location on Middle Road.

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