The Laker --
July 9, 2007 The Laker --
July 9, 2007By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper
Vacationing years ago meant
piling the family car — most likely a Model T — with provisions for a week or
more. There were no modern-day sleeping bags, supermarket stores or amusement
parks. There was just a tiny cottage where the family spent their vacation days
swimming, reading and hiking the countryside around Moultonboro.
The notion of being together and having fun has been revived at the former Red Hill Cottages on Route 25 in Moultonboro. Once, these five small cottages that sit in a row were the spot where summer travelers spent the night or longer on their vacation. Nearby was the Red Hill Restaurant where travelers and families could get a meal. However, as times changed, the cottages saw less frequent guests. Today the cottages have been revived as a different business venture.
Janet Cutler, formerly of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and Bill Page, formerly of Acton, Massachusetts, have purchased the property and transformed the five cottages into individual businesses called the Shoppes at Red Hill. The shops offer an eclectic fun mix of antiques, art and home goods, and each business has a different owner. “I got the idea for individual shops, all placed near one another,” says Janet, “when I visited a group of antique shops set up all in a row in Maine. They were small like the Red Hill cottages, and I loved them. They stayed in my mind and I knew I wanted to do something similar.
Janet and Bill had been coming to the Lakes Region for eight years. They had renovated a vacation home in the area so the idea of renovating the cottages seemed a good possibility. After purchasing the property last year, Janet, Bill and a group of then friends began fixing up the cottages.
The cottage that houses Janet’s shop, Garden Treasures at Red Hill, has been charmingly renovated. The character of the original structure was respected and retained, while such necessary touches such as heating were added. The shop, one large open room, has an unusual ceiling that peaks high above the center of the room. “The ceiling in the room was very low,” says Janet, “and when we took it down, there was the great original peaked roofline, painted a light green.”
Indeed, the chipped paint, so fashionable in today’s decorating world, gives the high ceiling the rustic, “cottage” look so many people love. Janet and Bill added a cute front porch to the cottage and shingled the roof, as well as adding red cedar shingles to the outside of the building.
Garden Treasures at Red
Hill offers a mixture of antiques, garden items, home decor and floral designs.
Antiquing has long been a hobby for Janet, and she ran her own garden center at
one time. “The roof’s shingles had to be hand-cut to match the pitch of the
structure,” explains Janet as she points to the top of the building.
Eventually, all the cottages will be redone, but the rustic, old-fashioned early cottage feeling suits some of the shop owners just fine. Chuck Guilbeault, owner of Rhinestone Cowgirl, two doors down from Janet’s shop, loves the vintage look of his cottage shop, inside and out.
The fact that each shop has a different decor and architectural style is part of what makes the Shoppes at Red Hill so unique. Whether one is looking for candles, home decor, unusual jewelry, furniture, antiques or garden items, it’s sure to be within one or more of the charming, totally unique Shoppes at Red Hill. For information and hours call Janet Cutler at (603) 253-6712.
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