The Barrett House (also known as Forest Hall) is a Federal style mansion located in New Ipswich, New Hampshire and one of the finest buildings in the entire state. The mansion was built around 1800 by Charles Barrett Sr. for his son Charles Jr. and daughter-in-law Martha Minot as a wedding gift. Its grand scale was encouraged by Martha’s father, who promised to furnish the house in as lavish a manner as Barrett Sr. could build it. The interiors are elegantly furnished, and numerous reception rooms were designed for entertaining in a cosmopolitan manner. An elaborate allée was later added to the landscape, with a flight of stone steps flanked by maples rising up the hillside behind the house and leading to an elegant summerhouse. After Charles and Martha died, the estate remained in the family. However, after the railroad bypassed New Ipswich, the town entered into a decline. Charles Barrett’s descendants stayed on, but today Forest Hall remains essentially a relic of the Federal era. After 1887, the family used the house only in the summer-time. It was donated to Historic New England in 1948. Historic New England has ever-since opened up the property to those who want to see one of the best examples of a rural, Federal style estate in New England and its well preserved interior and grounds.