Built in 1835 for David Buffum (1803–1889), this balloon-framed Greek Revival house remained in the Buffum family until 1928. Buffum, born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire to Joseph and Mary Buffum, moved to Walpole at age seventeen to clerk in his brother William’s store. He married Mary Hubbard in 1829 and became a prominent local merchant and civic leader. Over his career, Buffum was a member of the Walpole Rifle Company, president of the Savings Bank of Walpole, the town’s first librarian (1853–1859, with the books kept in his store), a charter member of the Walpole Carpet Company, and a state legislator in 1849–1850. Notably, he received a premium for his cattle at the first fair of the newly organized New Hampshire Agricultural Society in 1850.
The house was constructed to be one of the finest in Walpole. An abstract of the building contract (dated 5 March 1835, on file at the Walpole Historical Society) follows:
Memorandum of an agreement made the fifth day of March AD 1835, between George Kilburn of Walpole … and David Buffum of said Walpole
The said Kilburn agrees to build for said Buffum a two story house, low part to the same, wood house & barn agreeably to plans … to be erected on said Buffum’s House lot in Walpole Village. The said Kilburn is to dig and stone a cellar under the whole of the two story part of the house, the walls to be of good stone well laid and pointed … & the cellar to be suitably lighted … To have a piassa [piazza] of one story … with fluted columns … The two west fireplaces of the lower story to be freestone. The outside of the house to be finished with a good rich straight moulding cornice around the two story part & the piassa. The two west fireplaces of the lower story to be freestone. The outside of the house to be finished with a good rich straight moulding cornice around the two story part & the piassa. The windows in the two story part to be of Keene glass 11 by 15 inches & those in the two front parlors to be hung with weights. The parlor windows to be finished with shutters & those rooms to have sliding doors … To be a Venitian window in the west pediment … The style of the finish of the house to be as good as Mr. Ephraim Holland’s.
The outside of the house & low part to be well painted white with three coats. The barn and woodhouse with two coats of yellow. The front part of the inside of the two story part … to be well painted white, & the rest of the inside … with yellow & slate colour.
The whole to be finished by the first day of December next.
And the said Buffum agrees, when the above is completed, to convey to said Kilburn … that part of his house lot which is bounded as follows, to wit, Beginning at the north west corner thereof, thence on the main street to the north garden fence, thence easterly in a line with said fence about fifteen rods to the west side of the most easterly apple tree, thence parallel with the first mentioned line to the academy land thence on said Academy land to the place of beginning, with buildings thereon, and all the privilege of water which he now holds and also pay said Kilburn the sum of four hundred dollars…
David Buffum, George Kilburn
Buffum spared no expense, aiming to make the home equal to any in the village.
Architectural features include broad floorboards, ten-foot ceilings, six fireplaces, interior folding and paneled Indian shutters, a broad front stairway, and frosted and etched sidelights at the entrance. Marble fireplaces were added later. Despite periods of neglect and fire damage, particularly to the summer kitchen and woodshed, the house was extensively restored from 1967–1974 by prior owners.
The David Buffum House exemplifies Greek Revival elegance adapted for a prosperous merchant family and reflects the prominence of its owner in Walpole’s civic, commercial and cultural life.
Aaron Howland House 