The Albert White barn in Hanover will be reassembled near the Stetson House Museum.
(Margaret hoffman)
These boards will meet again
The Albert White barn in Hanover will be reassembled near the Stetson House Museum.
(Margaret hoffman)
HANOVER - Romance is the unlikely background for the White Barn, a humble utilitarian structure that’s now stored in pieces in a trailer at the local Department of Public Works.
The building’s history begins with a love story, sort of a Romeo and Juliet tale with a happy ending.
It begins with Cornelius White, grandson of Peregrine White, who was born on the Mayflower. Cornelius was a wealthy shipbuilder who operated the ferry in Humarock, on the Scituate-Marshfield town line, and had a son named Benjamin, according to a history written by Hanover Historical Society co-president Les Molyneaux.
Benjamin fell in love with Hannah Decrow, “a young lady of powerful build and great beauty’’ but of lower social standing than the Whites. Cornelius disapproved of the match and told his son, “If you marry her, I’ll banish you,’’ Molyneaux reports.
Benjamin married Hannah anyway, and, true to his word, Cornelius banished them - to Hanover - but in style. He set them up with 300 acres he bought in 1743 on what is now Center Street, as well as a horse, two cows, a yoke of oxen, and a gundalow - a flat-bottomed sailing vessel used to carry timber on the North River.
The couple stayed on the homestead in Hanover and raised five children there, including a son named Cornelius, whose own son, Albert White, is most closely associated with the property.
Albert, who married Lydia Bates, was active in town government, serving on the School Committee and Board of Selectmen. He also was the town clerk, and, in 1859, he reportedly issued the town’s first dog license, to his beloved dog Rover.
That love story - of a man for his dog - followed Albert to his death in 1861. His headstone in the Hanover Center Cemetery is a marble statue of Rover.
Then there’s the love for the barn, which was probably built by Benjamin White or one of his sons, according to Molyneaux.
“It looks like a plain barn to us, but when the [preservation carpentry experts from] the North Bennet Street School looked at it, they said it was really nice and pretty rare,’’ said Judy Grecco, co-president with Molyneaux of the historical society.
In other words, they loved it.
Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com. 
© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.
