The Israel Demeritt-O’Kane House is a two-story federal style, center-chimney, timber-framed dwelling. It consists of a 40′ x 32′ main house along with a 40′ x 21′ attached cape ell. We have carefully dismantled, tagged, preserved, and documented the house in its entirety, including the timber frame, moldings, paneling, casing, sash, and shutters. These elements are in storage and the house is ready to be rebuilt on your property.

Take a closer look

Explore photos of the house before it was dismantled.

Out of the seven original fireplaces, three are incorporated within fully-joined raised panel walls. The remaining four mantels showcase the craftsmanship of Nathaniel Demeritt, the original builder, with reeded moldings derived from Asher Benjamin‘s A Country Builder’s Assistant. Demeritt’s own copy of this important work is housed at the New Hampshire Historical Society.

“The best example so far identified in Durham of a two-story, center chimney house in the federal style.”

—Jim Garvin, New Hampshire state historian

The original crown moldings, chair-rail and casing are unique and have been preserved in nearly every room. The house also retains all original sash and corresponding pocket shutters. In addition to six bedrooms, there is room for two full bathrooms. The summer kitchen, 20’ x 23’, is large enough to accommodate modern amenities with minimal retrofit of historic features.

All house and ell parts are tagged, labeled, and mapped. This includes the framing and moldings, granite capstones, chimney and hearth brick. In addition to the house and ell, we are selling a carriage house timber frame dismantled on the same property. Like the main house and ell, all framing members of the carriage house are tagged and documented along with photographs and drawings.

Further reading and background