Tales to tell at Hearthside; Volunteers work to preserve homes in Great Road Historic District.

• Author: Rettig, Laura Porter Photography By Tom
• Position: Magazine

Byline: Laura Porter Photography by Tom Rettig

Walking through any old house, it's easy to believe that the shadows of the people who once lived there still linger. Ghostly or not, surely their footfalls must still sound on the staircases, their voices echo from room to room. Too many moments happened within those walls to disappear entirely.

At Hearthside, an early 19th century fieldstone mansion on Great Road in Lincoln, R.I., Kathy Hartley and a committed coterie of volunteers have done their utmost to make sure the historic home pays homage to the 12 families who lived and died, loved and thrived here.

"We had to grapple with the question of what to interpret -- which year?'' says Mrs. Hartley. "The different owners had significant histories, so we couldn't narrow it down without eliminating something. We decided to present several periods of the house.''

A lifelong resident who has lived in five different houses on Great Road, one of the oldest thoroughfares in the country, she is the founder and president of Friends of Hearthside Inc.

The all-volunteer organization is dedicated to promoting "the historical significance of this landmark as well as the cultural heritage of Lincoln and the Great Road Historic District,'' notes the organization's website. Its stewardship also extends to Moffat Mill, Chase Farm House and the Hannaway Blacksmith Shop, all owned by the town of Lincoln, as is Hearthside.

The Friends run frequent events at Hearthside, using the meticulously decorated home as a backdrop for historical interpretation and celebration.

Known as "the house that love built,'' the two and a half story home is on the National Register of Historic Places and has Federal-style features such as a gabled roof and simple but striking columns.

Its origin stems from a fable of unrequited love.

In 1810, Stephen Hopkins Smith, from Lincoln, was courting a young woman of means from Providence. Legend has it that when he brought her by carriage to see the house he had been secretly building for her on Great Road, she said, "What a beautiful house, but who would ever want to live way out in the wilderness?''

He immediately dispatched her back to Providence, moved into the house himself with his brother, and never married.

After the Smith family left the home in 1847, the property was variously owned by farmers, merchants and printers, passed on by inheritance or, several times, by auction.

Frederick Clark Sayles lived here in the late 1800s, running Lorraine Mills in the Moshassuck Valley. He bought farmland around Hearthside, called it Mariposa Farm and raised coach horses. Saylesville, named for him, remains...