1649 Valentine Hill House and ffrost Sawyer Tavern
17 Newmarket Road, Durham, NH 03824
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Boutique inn with a tavern and dining room. Check current rates at threechimneysinn.com.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Mixed: paved drive and walkways, historic interior with stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1649 · Oldest Standing Home in Durham · National Register of Historic Places · Valentine Hill Family
Valentine Hill, a Boston-based merchant active in early New England trade, built the original homestead at what is now 17 Newmarket Road in Durham in 1649, claiming what local sources describe as the oldest surviving house in the town. Roughly fifty years later, his son Nathaniel expanded the single-story dwelling into a three-story colonial home, lending the property its present footprint and the three chimneys for which the inn would later be named.
The building has changed hands many times across nearly four centuries, serving variously as a private residence, a working farmhouse, and finally an inn. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The current operation includes guest rooms, the Maples Dining Room, and the ffrost Sawyer Tavern, with an on-site staff presence around the clock.
Valentine Hill's daughter Hannah, born in the mid-17th century, married in 1659 around the age of twenty. Surviving records show no further mention of her after the marriage. Local historical accounts hold that Hannah drowned in the Oyster River, which runs directly behind the inn — though primary documentation of her death is not present in the surviving record. Her name remains attached to the inn's most consistent folklore.
Sources
The Three Chimneys Inn is unusual in that the proprietors themselves publish detailed accounts of the activity attributed to Hannah, the building's resident spirit. Hannah is described as fond of electronics — and unhappy about them. Calculator displays have shown numbers reversed on the ten-key. A printer reportedly continued to print pages for nearly twenty minutes after both the printer and its computer were unplugged from power. New equipment delivered to the inn has consistently failed to function in ways that have stumped vendors.
The overnight staff has shared its own accounts. One employee, sleeping during her overnight shift, was awakened by what felt like someone playing with her hair; she tucked her hair into her nightgown and told Hannah to go to bed. Another employee, hearing footsteps in the front parlor, came downstairs to find every drawer in the armoire, desk, and filing cabinet pulled out by exactly one inch.
A former chef, locking up the food and beverage office shortly after 1:00 a.m., looked over the railing above the tavern bar and saw a woman in vintage clothing standing behind it, looking up. During a holiday-season dinner, an entire insurance-company party watched a glass lift itself from a far table, smash against the side of the table, and fall in pieces to the floor. Deadbolts have been observed locking themselves with no one nearby.
The inn's staff frame these accounts with a dry, almost affectionate matter-of-factness, treating Hannah as a difficult but familiar coworker rather than a horror-movie figure.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Book a room in the 1649 Valentine Hill house, the oldest standing home in Durham and one of the oldest in New Hampshire. The inn is staffed 24 hours; staff have published their own accounts of late-night activity attributed to Hannah, Valentine Hill's daughter.
Dine in the ffrost Sawyer Tavern or Maples Dining Room of the 17th-century inn. Reservations available through OpenTable. The tavern is the setting for several of the inn's published encounter accounts, including a chef's reported sighting of a woman behind the bar after closing.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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