Deacon Abiel Rolfe House

Construction

The main block of the house is a 2 ½ story, side-gable, Greek Revival structure with a center entrance and two paneled chimneys. It rests on granite blocks and the roof is asphalt shingles. The main entrance features a Greek Revival surround with partial sidelights and a paneled transom of wood. A pair of ornate boot scrapers are mounted on the wide granite steps. Windows have 2/2 sash (probably replacing 6/6 sash in the late 19th century). The rear kitchen ell is 2 ½ stories. On the north side, there is an enclosed porch that dates from the 1910s. 

Occupants 

Deacon Abial Rolfe (1781-1840), the oldest of Nathaniel Rolfe’s three children, erected this house across the road from his father’s in 1834. For a year prior to his death, he shared the house with his nephew Capt. Nathaniel Rolfe and his wife Mary Jane Moody. The couple’s first two children were born here, in 1841 and 1843. By 1844, they had moved to #41 Penacook Street. During the 1840s and 1850s, the house was also occupied by Nathaniel’s parents, Capt. Henry and Deborah Rolfe. When Deborah died in 1849, Nathaniel’s sister and brother-in-law, Rhoda and David Farnum moved in with their five children to assist their father. By 1858, Capt. Nathaniel and his family replaced them, having vacated the old Nathaniel Rolfe House around the corner (currently located across the street).  

In 1870, Capt. Nathaniel and Mary’s eldest child Abial Walker Rolfe married Georgianna Gage, and the couple moved in. The couple remained here for their entire married lives, and Abial worked in the family business at the sash and door shop. Their three sons followed their father into the family business, and two lived here into adulthood. Frederick (b. 1879) married Edna Gray, and their two daughters Olive and Bertha were raised here. Throughout the 20th century, a variety of other Rolfe and Gage relatives resided here. Georgianna’s sister, Lucy Kimball Gage, spent her later years here as well as Edna’s sister, Isabel Page. Bertha Rolfe never married and lived here until her death in 1988. 

Adapted from State Register of Historic Places nomination document for the Rolfe Family Historic District by Elizabeth Hengen.