Written by Alicia Gagne UNH ’15
Valentine Hill is a common name to come across when reading about the history and development of Durham. A less heard name is that of his daughter, Hannah Hill. Not much is recorded about Hannah except that she was married in the year 1659 at the age of twenty, even her cause of death is not certain, though it’s rumored she drowned in the Oyster River ^1. Yet, Hannah is an integral part of our history that has stayed with us to the present day according to employees and guests at the Three Chimneys Inn, Hannah’s renovated home.
Three Chimneys Inn Today. Photo By Alicia Gagne
It’s rumored that Hannah still walks the building that she called home. This building survived through four families, an Indian massacre, a typhoid epidemic, and a continuously changing surrounding community ^2. The house mirrored the community and the environment; going through times of elegance, disrepair, and then back to full functioning magnificence once again today. Hannah’s home was originally built at the same time as the establishment of the Oyster River’s settlement, in 1649. The same year that Hannah’s father, Valentine Hill, built a sawmill, which contributed to Durham’s rich past in the timber and masting industry. When the economy was thriving, so was Hannah’s home. Due to the location of Hannah Hill’s house– at the top of a hill overlooking the river that provided for the community– it survived the Indian attack of 1694, which destroyed nearly all the houses in the surrounding settlement, giving testament to the house’s ability to thrive ^2. As the economy and the industry in the area changed, so did the home owners and the house’s appearance and functions. What should be examined is the house as it is today, as well as what Hannah’s presence can tell us.
When the co-owners of the Three Chimneys Inn purchased the homestead in 1998, it was in rough repair according to Karen Meyers, the current Innkeeper since 2000. At the time of its most recent purchase the estate was being used as a boarding house with rooms being rented separately. The owners of the Three Chimneys Inn saw the potential of bringing this historic home back to its former glory by making it a better fit for the historic district it resides in. The renovations did not strip away Hannah’s home’s past, they memorialized it, keeping the “original mill work and exposed beams” ^3. Maybe it is because of its historical integrity that Hannah feels it is her right to make her presence known and interfere with the goings on of the Three Chimney’s Inn.
The discussion that could be had with one such as Hannah Hill would be an awakening one if it were possible, as she has resided in her home for the past three centuries and has seen so much change take place. If a community could be made to last as her home has, going through stages of renovations, disrepair, and then thriving to life once again, then it would be a sustainable and healthy community. Hannah Hill’s ghost is said not to like new technology. Whenever ‘new age’ electronics are brought into the Three Chimney’s Inn they tend to have difficulty running for no explainable reason, or they will run when there is no connected power source, run when they are unneeded and cause more problems rather than helping ^1. Why might Hannah feel this way when her father was an entrepreneur who was at the height of technology in his age? With the saw mills and buildings he owned and ran?
One could say that no one likes change, even a spirit who has witnessed three centuries of change can be opposed to it. But Hannah has also witnessed the destruction of what technology can incur. It is then understandable for her to be hesitant when new technology is introduced: After all, she did witness the destruction her father’s sawmill caused to the Oyster River (due to the silt buildup). Hannah may also just be bringing attention to herself. Some employees say she is not the only spirit residing in the Inn, but she is definitely the most active at making her presence known. Hannah has brought attention to herself by messing with printers, lifting glasses off tables and smashing them in front of guests, and by putting things in the way of employees in the store room. All of these ‘outbursts’ are her way of reminding the community that there is a past, and we can learn from her. By bringing attention to herself, Hannah provides a direct link to the rich history of the Three Chimney’s Inn.
There is reason to discuss Hannah’s presence and how it effects a community. In the sense of Benedict Anderson’s imagined community, it can be argued that Hannah’s haunting is a way to create a bond within a group of people who have either experienced her presence, or want to believe that such things can occur. The unity this group feels will lead them to look into Durham’s past and try to explain to themselves why one would stay around so long, and it can give hope for the future of the Three Chimneys Inn, and for the future of Durham. If Hannah can stay and be content in a home she’s occupied for three centuries, can the Durham community not come together for reasons imagined or not, and work to make this land as sustainable as Hannah’s home? Or for no foreseeable reason other than preventing disrepair from coming again? Hannah’s home is safe in its historical integrity and is protected by a community that wants to remember where our beginnings are from. Remembering and learning are the first steps to being able to create a sustainable future, something we can all learn from Hannah’s continued stay at the Three Chimneys Inn.
1. “Most Haunted Places in America – Ghost Eyes.” Most Haunted Places in America – Ghost Eyes.
2. “Three Chimneys Inn. ffrost Sawyer Tavern–History.”
3. Three Chimneys Inn ffrost Sawyer Tavern. Brochure
4. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 2006).
5. “Oyster River.” In Jeff Bolster, ed., Cross Grained and Wily Waters, pp. 148-149.
6. “The Ffrost House: Contemporary Use of a Historic Building.” In Cross Grained and Wily Waters pp 155-156.
Sustaining Piscataqua 