The Ellen Lambert Murphy Memorial Community House

Built in 1803 by Foster Alexander, the house is a fine example of post-colonial Georgian architecture.

Luther Alexander purchased the home from his lawyer brother, Foster, prior to 1814. He was a captain of the first military company organized in Winchester and used the front yard of the property as a drill field. He married Eunice Ripley and they had four children.

Edward Alexander (1814-1900), son of Luther and Eunice, was born in the house and died there. Edward married Lucy Capron 1939. They had three children. Their daughter, Jane Grace Alexander, was the first woman to to be appointed bank treasurer and worked with the Winchester National Bank for 52 years. She was the last of the Alexander family to occupy this great Alexander mansion.

N.H. Gov. Francis P. Murphy, twice Governor of the State of New Hampshire, purchased the house in 1937. He was born August 16, 1877 in Winchester, N.H., who always admired the Alexander mansion as a young boy. He dedicated the property in honor of his mother on January 17, 1938, naming it the Ellen Lambert Murphy Memorial to be used as a Community Center.

"It occurred to me to erect a memorial to my own mother which would symbolize the homage due mothers everywhere, so that the gentle character that reared me, might in a sense, become a second helpful mother to all the boys and girls of Winchester".

"I hereby dedicate these grounds these buildings to the encouragement of the eternally glorious arts of design, of music, of drama and of the practical handicraft; to the fostering of community ideals and community action; to the development of wholesome sports and recreation; to the dissemination of a spirit of neighborliness, of tolerance in opinions, of civil enterprise and good citizenship".

~ Gov. Francis Parnell Murphy 1938