Jonathan Barnes House

The Jonathan Barnes House stands in the rural village of Hillsborough Center, on the east side of the triangular junction of Center and North streets. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof, two interior chimneys, and a clapboarded exterior, and is oriented facing south. The main facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance flanked by Tuscan pilasters and topped by a transom window and gabled pediment. Windows are rectangular sash with corniced caps; that above the entrance is smaller than the others. Two additions project from the east side of the main building, one of which is also of early construction. An 18th-century barn is located on the property to the north of the house.^[2]

The interior of the house follows a typical center hall plan, with two rooms on either side of the main hall. The rooms on the west side of the hall have fixtures consistent with their use as a tavern, and the second-floor chambers above them have configurable partition walls, enabling the space to be turned into a single large ballroom.^[2]

The house was built c. 1773-75 for the Rev. Jonathan Barnes, the first settled minister of the town. Local lore says that it was built by Isaac Baldwin, a local master carpenter who lost is life in the Battle of Bunker Hill, early in the American Revolutionary War. The house has seen a wide array of uses, including as a library (founded in 1797), music school, marching band facility (1825), and Masonic lodge. The tavern-related features of the interior are among the best-preserved of their type in the region.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
• New Hampshire historical marker no. 107: Colonial Grant