The Fells hosts corporate retreats and meetings for up to 60 people indoors, and garden events and weddings for up to 175 guests. The John Hay Estate at The Fells is a historic summer property of about 84 acres on the shore of Lake Sunapee in Newbury, New Hampshire, open to visitors as a house museum and public garden.
Seminars and company events
The estate takes board retreats, annual meetings, award ceremonies, seminars and conferences, from a small workshop to a full corporate retreat. Meetings use the interior South Wing of the main house, for up to 60 guests, while garden sites receive between 5 and 175 people. Groups can add house and garden tours or walks on the nature trails, and the area offers golf, tennis, hiking, boating and the shops of nearby New London.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings run from mid-June to early October. Ceremonies take place in the Old Garden for small groups or on the Rose Terrace. Receptions are held in the events pavilion, or more casually on the veranda of the main house. The estate works with a list of approved vendors for tents and rentals, bartending, flowers, music, photography, transport and planning.
Rooms and capacities
Outdoor garden sites take 5 to 175 guests. The South Wing of the main house holds up to 60. The events pavilion and the veranda serve receptions, and tents can be arranged through approved rental companies. The site does not publish seated figures for each space, so layouts are agreed with the events team.
Accommodation
There are no guest rooms at the estate. The Fells lists nearby lodging around Newbury and Sunapee, including inns, a bed and breakfast and rental suites, one of which runs a shuttle van.
Catering
Food must come from one of the estate's approved caterers, a list of about eight regional companies, and approved bar services handle drinks.
History and setting
John Hay, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln at 22 and later ambassador to Great Britain and Secretary of State under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, began buying abandoned farms above Lake Sunapee in 1888 and named the estate after his Scottish roots. Architect George F. Hammond designed the gambrel-roofed Colonial Revival house, completed in 1892. From 1906 his son Clarence Hay and Alice Appleton Hay remodeled it and turned sheep pasture into terraced lawns and formal gardens. Today the 22-room house, six gardens and woodland are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and nearly half a mile of shoreline is protected by a conservation easement with the State of New Hampshire. The Garden Conservancy counts The Fells among its preservation projects.
Getting there
The estate is at 456 Route 103A in Newbury, in the Lake Sunapee and Dartmouth region, about 90 minutes by car from Boston and less than 50 miles from Manchester.
