A WOODSTOCK BARGAIN—NO KIDDING
Woodstock, Vermont $99,500
"Well, see what he can come up with,"the Alumni Magazine editor told us, referring to the Moseyer who has been coming up with interesting and unusual properties for Yankee Homes to write about for over four years. ". . . maybe some affordable Edens to go along with a snooty mansion or two, all within, say, 30 minutes' drive of the Hanover Green."
We knew the editor was new to the area, but did he really think there were any affordable houses near Hanover—let alone affordable Edens? Without sounding optimistic, we said we'd try. We've known the Moseyer a long time and have been amazed at some of the things he's come up with. He's turned up the birthplace of Uncle Sam, the home of Rogers Rangers, three cabooses, old forts, countless churches and schoolhouses, places to be moved, places to be dismantled and then moved, houses for a dollar, even whole mountains for sale. Once he found a yurt just as we were putting a yurt story together for an issue (a yurt is kind of a nomadcabin, shaped like an oversized cupcake). And just this week he told us he'd come across an old farmhouse in northern Maine with an authentic 1930s fire tower next to it—and attached to the tower is a scale-model rocket that John Glenn himself called "the best damn amateur rocket model I've seen." So, knowing that he has a knack for finding properties that none of the rest of us ever seem to know about, we told the Moseyer what the editor wanted.
When we came back to the office after the weekend, the Moseyer had already dropped off his notes, and we half-expected to see a note of apology in with them. But there it was right on top: a property in Woodstock for under $100,000. Built as a law office in the 1790s, the place had been moved around a couple of times and was now a comfortable home on Pleasant Street, just outside the village. There were some old pictures with the notes showing how the place used to look—not that much different from today, really—and some background information on the lawyer who had it built, Charles Marsh. Turns out that Charles Marsh was Class of 1786 at Dartmouth, a Dartmouth Trustee, and the father of Charles Marsh Jr., Dartmouth class of 1813! We couldn't have invented a more appropriate property.
We called the Moseyer up right away to ask him how he did it, but he was already gone, probably to do some ice fishing up at his camp on some big lake in New Hampshire.
Call Bruce Gould of Bruce C. Gould & Co. for information about the old law office, (802) 457-4400.
Author George P. Marsh, 1820, is distantly associated with the house.
Built by a lawyer alum in the 1790s, the former office is now a home.
