O Little Town: Start the Holidays in Bethlehem

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Today the 1,400-acre Rocks Estate is a conservation and education center for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Currently the farm's crop is Christmas trees. Photo by Stillman Rogers.

Coloroful shops line Bethlehem’s Main Street. Photo by Stillman Rogers.

Decorations made from recycled paper can be found at Interiors Green.

WREN's Local Works Marketplace. Photo by Stillman Rogers.

Ragamuffins is filled with interesting gift ideas.

The old stables at the Rocks Estate. Photo by Stillman Rogers.

Today the 1,400-acre Rocks Estate is a conservation and education center for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Currently the farm's crop is Christmas trees. Photo by Stillman Rogers.

Plan Ahead

Mulburn Inn
869-3389
www.mulburninn.com

Terra on Main
www.terraonmain.com
869-5600

WREN
869-9736
www.wrencommunity.org

Interiors Green
616-6499
www.interiorsgreen.com

Ragamuffins Design
869-3387
www.flyingcarpetdesigns.com

Cold Mountain Café
869-2500
www.coldmountaincafe.com

Colonial Theater
869-5603
www.bethlehemcolonial.org

The Rocks Estate
444-6228
www.therocks.org

Maia Papaya
869-9900

Bethlehem, incorporated on December 25, 1799, is the perfect place to begin the season.

Itinerary

Saturday Morning

We awoke in the room where Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton honeymooned, in the turreted corner of what was then the Woolworth family's summer "cottage." It was built in 1908 by Sylvanus D. Morgan, who'd only recently completed the nearby Mount Washington Hotel. The Adams Room (I think it should be the Cary Grant Room) features original birds-eye maple woodwork and curved glass in the turret and Art Deco light fixtures. Over hearty breakfast our host told us about the Mulburn Inn's other glittering guests, including Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. Our interest in Bethlehem's history piqued, we followed a walking tour map of other historic buildings with architecture from high Victorian to Arts and Crafts, including a Sears Roebuck house and a pagoda.

Lunch

Back on Main Street, a row of brightly painted shop-fronts ended at Terra On Main, where we ate burgers and really good fries. November wasn't quite the season to sit on their wrap-around porch.

Saturday Afternoon

For a town Bethlehem's size, the shops are amazing. Anchoring the colorful commercial block is Local Works Marketplace, filled with works by 200-plus local artisans. We were wowed by the talent displayed here in mediums from glass and gold to wool and wood. We bought Christmas cards and checked off almost half our list. At Interiors Green we found a Ghana market basket for only $35, and a toasty organic wool-filled comforter. The adjacent antiques shop turned up White Mountain memorabilia for my collection, then on to Ragamuffins. Like WREN's, its changing variety never fails to surprise us. We added gift cards and pottery by owner Barbara Thompson.

Dinner at Cold Mountain Café

We'd had wonderful lunches here, but never dinner. After splitting a starter of dates stuffed with local chevre and wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon, we savored rack of lamb cooked exactly as ordered, and grilled pork tenderloin with lemon-rosemary sauce. No room for desserts, but the espresso was piping hot.

Saturday Evening

Fortunately, because that was not a dinner to rush through, nothing was playing across the street at The Colonial Theatre, one of America's oldest continuously operated movie houses. So we returned to relax in front of the Mulburn Inn's parlor fireplace.

Sunday Morning

After breakfast, we bundled up and headed for The Rocks Estate, another of the summer homes where the wealthy escaped the city heat. Today the 1,400-acre farm is a conservation and education center for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. We toured most of it on the four-plus-mile Michael A. Gozzo Trail, exploring woodlands and overgrown apple orchards, past beaver ponds and wetlands. The farm's crop today is Christmas trees, and we ended our hike by cutting our own. We picked up a few final gifts and a balsam wreath at the Marketplace - The Rocks' holiday crafts show.

Sunday Afternoon

By now it was mid-afternoon, so before leaving Bethlehem we stopped for a late lunch at Maia Papaya. The sign says coffee and tea, but they serve custom-built sandwiches and hand-made desserts. My sandwich was great, but completely overshadowed by maple shoofly pie. We bought cookies for the ride home.