Garden SUITE

A hundred years ago, a man built a greenhouse for his wife on a steep hill high above New Hampshire’s Squam Lake. “She wanted to grow things in winter and to have the first tomatoes,” says the couple’s great-granddaughter. “She did – for one season. After that, he said, ‘No more!’ Even back in the days of cheap fuel, it was prohibitively expensive to heat a glass house in winter.”

Following that first costly year, the family’s tomatoes ripened at about the same time as their neighbors’ tomatoes. But the unheated greenhouse was, and still is, used to start seedlings and to produce early lettuce, beans, cucumbers, and beets during the growing season.

“The greenhouse fell into disuse for a while during the mid-20th century, when my parents lived there,” says the great-granddaughter, who now owns the greenhouse as well as the main house, which was built by her great-grandparents on their 15-acre property. “And once a hailstorm broke 120 windows” in the greenhouse, she says. “But our family has continued to use it, more or less uninterrupted.”

Historic greenhouses like this one usually incorporated a small brick or shingled building at one end that was used as a potting shed, tool-storage area, and sometimes even rudimentary living space for the gardener. Five years ago, the owner gave her greenhouse another function by converting the 800-square-foot working end into a guesthouse.

A small shingled cottage perpendicular to the long glass house, the guesthouse now provides a surprising level of comfort. To bring in light and expand the sense of space, the owner built a new, higher roof and set small triangular windows into its gabled peaks. “When we took off the old roof, we found that the bats were having a field day up there,” she says with a laugh. A dark storage room was transformed into an airy bath, complete with a ceramic vessel sink and claw-foot tub.

The wide counter once used for potting plants is now fitted with a new kitchen sink, and what were once soil bins are now used to store pots and pans. A new wood stove, refurbished built-in shelving, and a charming collection of antique furnishings complete the change from garden work space to sunny retreat.

A small interior patio between the plantings in the greenhouse and the guest cottage is a sunny place to sit, and it gives the owner extra space to display her antiques and collectibles. “I’ve always been a collector,” she says. “The space just kind of evolved. It took several years before it looked like this.”

And the location couldn’t be better – surrounded by perennial beds and full of sunshine and the smell of warm soil and heirloom tomatoes.

Regina Cole is a freelance writer in Gloucester. E-mail her at coleregina@mac.com.