Susan J Montgomery Wisteria House All Books sku-430469448

Susan J Montgomery's hardcover Wisteria House: Life in a New England Home, 1839-2000 is listed under All Books as SKU sku-430469448. Wisteria House, more properly the Field-Hodges House, is a North Andover, Massachusetts landmark named for a veranda vine that has flourished for more than 150 years. Only two families owned the house.

Its last owner, Sarah Moore Field, died in 1988, leaving it furnished and filled with belongings accumulated over three generations. She hoped it would become a historic house museum, but circumstances required another solution.

The book records the lives of two upper-middle-class families through the house and its furnishings, clothing, personal effects, photographs, correspondence, and financial papers. Its text and illustrations cover gender roles, childhood and education, household economy, health and medicine, work and leisure, and community history, with public history, preservation, and stewardship running through the account.

It also describes the efforts of devoted amateurs to save the house alongside professionals' assessment of whether a museum would be financially viable and relevant to the public. The book was the final part of the preservation project, completed after the building and grounds were secured, significant collections were placed with public institutions, financial obligations were met, and the intent of a Last Will and Testament was fulfilled.

The project is presented as an example of stewardship in the debate over the future of historic house museums in America.