The Frost Place

Frost Place
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Frost Place in 2008
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Interactive map showing the location of the Frost Place
Location	Ridge Road Franconia, New Hampshire, United States
Coordinates	44°12′46″N 71°45′27″W / 44.21278°N 71.75750°W / 44.21278; -71.75750
Area	9 acres (3.6 ha)
NRHP reference No.	76000126[1]
Added to NRHP	November 30, 1976

The Frost Place is a museum and nonprofit educational center for poetry located at Robert Frost's former home on Ridge Road in Franconia, New Hampshire, United States. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.^[1]

According to local family lore, poet Robert Frost spotted this property on the west side of Franconia's Ridge Road in 1915 while looking for a home in the area. He purchased it from farmer Willis Herbert, for whom he supposedly procured an adjacent property. The house is 1½ stories in height, with a long front facade covered by a porch. The facade affords fine views of the Franconia Range and Mount Lafayette.^[2]

Frost and his family lived in the house until 1920, when it was sold back to the Herbert family. It remained a private residence until The Frost Place was founded in 1976 when the farm was purchased by the town of Franconia, restored, and given its name, opening as a museum in 1977.^[3][4][5] Since 1977, the Frost Place has awarded a resident poet award to an emerging American poet, which includes a stipend and the opportunity to live and write in the house during the summer.^[3][6]

From 2013 until 2022, The Frost Place offered an annual chapbook prize, with the winning chapbook published by Bull City Press.^[3][7] Past winners include Jill Osier, Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet, Anders Carlson-Wee, Tiana Clark, Yuki Tanaka, Cassandra Bruner, Aa Hee Lee, and Ethan Chua.

In 2024, The Frost Place hired poet Patrick Donnelly to lead as Program Director. He continues to direct the annual Poetry Seminar. For many years, The Frost Place sponsored a Conference on Poetry, and a Conference on Poetry and Teaching. The Conference on Poetry was directed by poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi,^[8] with poet Ross White serving as Associate Director. The Conference on Poetry and Teaching and the Writing Intensive was directed by poet Dawn Potter; associate director was poet and teacher Kerrin McCadden.

A board of trustees assumed responsibility for the management of the museum and associated programs, and Donald Sheehan served as executive director until 2005. In 2006, the trustees appointed Jim Schley to be Sheehan's successor.^[9] From the fall of 2008 until April 2011 the trustees managed The Frost Place.^[3] Maudelle Driskell was named executive director in April 2011 and served until 2023, when Stacy Holmes was hired as Interim Executive Director in the fall of that year. In 2024, Stacy Holmes was appointed Executive Director. Friends of the Frost Place is the nonprofit organization that manages The Frost Place house-museum and its programs.

• Robert Frost Farm (Derry, New Hampshire)
• Robert Frost Farm (Ripton, Vermont)
• Robert Frost Farm (South Shaftsbury, Vermont)
• Robert Frost House, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Grafton County, New Hampshire

• The Frost Place website Archived 2012-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Poem: On the Porch at the Frost Place by William Matthews, The Atlantic Online, February 1982