There is no place like home for the holidays or any time of the year to be honest. There is something magical, at least for me, when I turn the key to my place and step inside. A feeling of safety perhaps, or maybe it is the familiarity, but whatever it is I love being home.
When Kelly and Edgar Marti purchased a five-bedroom, 10-room, 3,000-square-foot house at the end of South Street in Somersworth in August 2017, they too had visions of one day being able to call it home.
The house, which was built in 1885 by Samuel H. James, a grocery store owner, was and still is an impressive sight. Since then, like many older houses, it has witnessed more than its fair share of family festivities, tragedies and heartbreaks. The most recent of those heartbreaks would occur on May 22, 2015 when the house was engulfed in fire and resulted in the death of Somersworth native Janis Miller. The aftermath of that fire was that much of the house was decimated and required restoration that would prove too much for the Miller family to take on due to financial constraints.
The house would subsequently be sold at auction, which is how the Martis acquired the property in 2017. Since that date the couple has worked every spare moment to make a dream a reality, investing $250,000 into the house so far and countless hours of hard work. Recently the house has suffered a spate of break-ins and damage which have stretched the couple financially to the brink of giving up the dream of continuing the renovation of the single-family dwelling.
They are not quite prepared to give up on that dream yet though and are asking for help in an interesting and unusual fashion. They are offering the opportunity to purchase and sign a brick that will then be used within the house or walkway to the house. The minimum they are asking for when purchasing a brick and the opportunity to not only save but be a part of a historic Somersworth Victorian home is $1. You can find more information by visiting the couple’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Somersworth-NH-Victorian-House-Renovation-540701292986824
Christmas fun ahead
It’s now a fact that this year’s festive season will be very different thanks to COVID-19 and the virus continues to impact our lives in so many ways. That said, I have some news about the Christmas celebrations that will take place in the city this year. So let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Just as neighboring towns have decided, there will be no Somersworth-Berwick Christmas Parade this year. That said, Beth Poulin who chairs the Somersworth parade committee wants everyone to know that Santa has not forgotten Somersworth and plans to stop by in December to say “Hi.”
The committee is also working hard to create alternative and creative ways to bring Christmas safely to you this year. They are working in conjunction with the Somersworth Recreation Department and I hope to be able to give you full details in next week’s column. In the meantime, check out the committee’s Facebook page for some exciting updates: https://www.facebook.com/christmasparadeandgala
In case you are wondering when the city lights will be installed downtown. Santa’s elf stopped by and let me know that plans are afoot to light up the city the week after Thanksgiving. That will include the Christmas tree that sits in the USS Somersworth Park at the junction of Main and Market streets. I always look forward to seeing the tree and I know many of you do, too.
Of course, before we get to Christmas, we have to celebrate Thanksgiving. Being English, this is not a holiday we celebrate across the pond, but once I moved to the USA it quickly became one of my favorite holidays of the year. I used to describe it to my family back in England as “Christmas without the presents,” but I’ve since revised that description. I’ve come to realize that the gifts at Thanksgiving are the people in our lives that we love, cherish and hold dearest. Nothing we can buy in a store can ever replace the feeling of spending time with those we care about the most.
This year, celebrations will likely look very different for many of us, but for those on the front lines and their families I want to take a moment to say thank you. There will still be Somersworth police officers patrolling the streets, Somersworth firefighters on call just in case your turkey explodes in the oven, and an ambulance crew ready and willing to help in the worst of times. To those on duty I say thanks and with all due respect I hope none of us see you this Turkey Day.
So I’ll close this week by wishing all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
This article first appeared in Fosters Daily Democrat on November 23rd, 2020.