Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House by Sarah Messer

Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House by Sarah Messer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I came across this book reading an article about, I've forgotten exactly where now, and it mentioned the my old hometown of Marshfield, Massachusetts. It is a relatively small but popular town that is now known for it's sightings of resident Steve Tyler of Aerosmith. It also caught my interest because I while living there I too was living in an old red farm house that was my grandparents. Obviously not the same house and it was on the other side of town. The author was also there around the same time but I never knew her personally as she was a grade ahead of me. It gave me a little more understanding of references to the region and town. It is located on what is known locally as the South Shore midway between the well known Boston and the historic Plymouth. If you think of it one could hardly escape American history between these well known locations of early American history. Many of our school field trips were either to Boston or Plymouth historic sites.

The book has a mixture of three story lines. First, in not in any particular order, is a personal memoir that covers the authors childhood to adulthood. Thru house fires, drug addiction, renovating the house and efforts writing the book itself. Secondly is the local geographic history of the immediate area. Third was the family history of the Hatch's,the original family that owned it, from colonial times to the present day(as of the books writing).

I did learn some interesting local history along the way that I didn't know before. It was when I was a kid living in this town and learning of local history that sparked a lifetime interest in history itself.

The book comes back to original family as the author reconnects to the original family that owned the house(child of owner who sold the house but had already passed away) which makes for a warm closure to the story.

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