The doctor made arrangements with patients to trade their construction labor for his medical services. At least some of these workers must have been amateurs, yet the house doesn't show it.  He liked modern things, and the electric starter system for the gas lights is still in the basement.  There is a large control board, with switches and markers identifying each of the original gas lights.  The glass battery cells are still located on the basement shelves.  Many of the walls hide hollow brass tubes that were his original intercom system.  A few walls still have the "speakers" that folks talked into, or placed their ears against to listen.  The funnel shaped speakers look like miniature versions of an old Victrola speaker.  The system is similar to the one old ships used to send messages between the boiler room and the bridge.  And when you think about it, its not surprising to find such a device in a community so close to the sea. 

There are other signs that time forgot this house.  A 1930's calendar hangs near the furnace.  The original Kitchen sink was replaced in the 1930s, and the wood stoves are long gone.  But one of the fireplaces will still burn coal.  The wooden icebox still sits in a corner of the walk-in pantry waiting for a new block of ice.  The marble pastry board positioned over a radiator waits for the next pie crust, but the flour bins are empty now.  

One of the few concessions to modern living is the bathroom toilet.  But, mounted on the patient’s bathroom wall is a turn of the century urinal used to gather specimens.  The servant's bathroom in the basement still has a tin tub. The second floor slop sink, used by the maids to wash their mops, has the wooden holding tank that sat above the sink.  The sink itself is in the attic broken in half.  One of the most unusual treasures, is a box filled with wallpaper from the 80 plus years the house remained in the doctor’s family.  And, much to everyone’s delight, 95% of the woodwork is in it's original unpainted state!

In 1905, 15 years after the house was built, a fire started in the housekeepers room on the third floor.  The fire consumed much of that floor. The slate roof held in the heat and the firefighters couldn't get to the burning floor until the roof collapsed.  The house is of balloon construction, which means there were no fire-stops in the walls. You can stand in the attic and drop a marble straight down to the basement. We have found evidence that the flames traveled down the outer walls to the first floor, without affecting the second floor.  Given the nature of firefighting equipment at the turn of the century, it is a surprise that the house survived.  Had it not been close to the river, it probably would have burned to the ground.

The fire took the two towers, one of which gave an additional two stories to the building.  It also destroyed a cupola and several third floor windows.  The present day roof line reflects that portions of the third floor were never rebuilt.  To make up for the change in the roof line, the doctor added a new stained glass window to the 15 that were already in the house.  This new window was in a 7 foot wide, 4 foot half circle shape. It resided just under the roof peak on the front side of the house.  When the sun shined through it the rose glass took on a wonderful light pink glow.  It may have been created by one of Tiffany's students since his wife was from Norwich.  In November of 1999, close to 100 years after it was built, 11 months after we bought the house, and just a few weeks before the window was to be boarded up for protection, a 50 mile an hour wind sucked it right out of the house.  The glass fell 50 foot and most shattered.  Amazingly some pieces were undamaged. 

There were several reasons for the accident.  First, the frame had not been maintained in several years and the glass was loose.  Second, the leading was not soldered to reinforcing bars. Although the other large windows in the house were reinforced, this one was not. Third, a few weeks before, a contractor for the City of Norwich had been dynamiting on the street out front making the whole house shake. We could never prove this was a contributing factor, since the damage happened a few weeks later.  The fourth factor was of course, the high wind.  

The window now sits in a box.  It is sad that such a large, beautiful window fits in such a small box.  The good news is that an artisan in Boston can recreate the window from photographs when we are ready to replace it. 

Over the years the house was never remodeled so that thankfully, most of the original woodwork and many light fixtures are still present.  The quality and good condition of the woodwork is amazing given the condition of the upper floors.  When I purchased the place there were over 30 children’s wading pools in the attic.  These were positioned in a last ditch effort to catch the ever increasing flow of rain.  A hose and sump pump system was used to drain the water.  During that first January, you could stand in the middle of the attic and collect snow on our outstretched hands. 

Our first few months were spent removing 20 tons of damp plaster and lathe. Since then the rotten rafters have been repaired.  A few years later, the 5000 plus sq ft roof was re-decked and re-roofed.  That in itself was an adventure. You can see photos on the following pages.