Stetson House

Stetson House is a colonial style historic house at Hanover Street in Hanover, Massachusetts. It was built in 1716 by Samuel "Drummer" Stetson and lived in for at least a hundred years. In its early years before Hanover's first church was built, people would sometimes use the house for prayer.

In the Common room there is a large fireplace (one of six in the house) and a Yule log that was lit for good luck on Christmas but was never allowed to burn all the way. At the church, if you fell asleep a person would tickle you with a feather attached to a tithing rod. It was above the fireplace. A grandfather clock made by John Bailey and given to the Stetson house was too big to fit in the house so they had to cut a depression in the floor. The mother Stetson sometimes baked pies in the deep oven and at about 4:00pm called the children to supper.

People donated furniture for the Music Room. Also in the Music room there is a portrait of John Barstow and his wife Betsy Ellen. Four front windows have special glass, each with 24 panes. The dining room is not used often, only on special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving.

The doors between the rooms were made crooked on purpose so that they would close by themselves and not let the heat out. Most of the rooms were not heated and foot warmers were used in the winter.

In 1979 it was added National Historic Register.

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