HGTV Series ‘Houses with History’ Takes Us To Plymouth, Massachusetts, Preview

New England town Plymouth is home to the famous rock now cordoned and barricaded to keep souvenir hunters chipping it to a nub. It is also the base for the new series, Houses with History for HGTV.

This series is looking at the houses and barns built by early Americans in the New World.  The producers research the fascinating backstories of America’s oldest homes.

This renovation series, Houses with History, comes with a serious amount of information. In each episode, history buff Mike Lemieux, carpenter Rich Soares, and designer Jen Macdonald work to save centuries-old properties in and around Plymouth, Massachusetts.

And they share the homes’ origins and renovation stories too.

About Houses with History

A new show is coming to HGTV, starring a trio of Massachusetts natives that have dedicated their lives to historic real estate. The premiere episode focuses on two historic properties, a former inn and a single-family home built in the 1700s.

The series stars Jennifer MacDonald, Mike Lemieux, and Rich Soares who comb Plymouth County and the surrounding wooded areas south of Boston as they transform 18th and 19th-century homes into brand new ones, all while preserving their history.

In an interview for local radio station Fun107, MacDonald, and Lemieux revealed they went to school on the Cape in the Massachusetts bay-side town of Sandwich but reunited in two decades with a shared passion for real estate and history.

Fun107 wrote: “Lemieux’s father was a carpenter in Sandwich, working on many historic homes during his time. MacDonald’s mother and grandmother worked at the Thornton W. Burgess Museum as historians.”

The two got in the game and worked on various properties, finding their niche with the area’s large amounts of ancient homes needing lots of repairs. Their business is called Full Circle Homes.

A former New Kid on the Block contacted High Noon Entertainment, the producers of other HGTV shows like Fixer Upper and Good Bones. The rest is reno reality history.

“It’s definitely different from your typical HGTV show,” MacDonald said to Fun107. “They dive into the history of each house we renovate, and they make it interesting.”

The history lessons are given as the team unpeels the damaged layers and restores the house to its former 18th-century glory.

About Plymouth, Massachusetts

Woods, beaches, city life, and shopping define this seaside city that clocks in at 134 square miles. Plymouth is the largest town by land size in the Bay State. The area that is between Boston’s south shore and the Sagamore Bridge at the eastern end of the Cape Cod canal and the Bourne Bridge at the western end that welcomes (and exits) people to Cape Cod is full of natural wonders, killer clam shacks, granite cliffs, trees galore, and loads of shoreline.

According to HGTV:

Mike and Rich will explore both properties, discovering what’s hidden behind old closed doors, inside damp basements and under original plank floorboards, before deciding on one to renovate for a modern family. After the selected home is restored and renovated, special guest Jonathan Knight, star of HGTV’s Farmhouse Fixer, will walk through the finished home to see the astounding results.

Fans are invited to learn more about Houses with History on HGTV’s digital platforms. Viewers can visit HGTV.com/HousesWithHistory for photo galleries and exclusive videos.

Houses with History premieres Wednesday, September 29, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV.

April Neale

5 Comments

  1. Your first episode “The One Built in 1666” kept mentioning the Federalist architectural style. Why? The house was built more than a century before the Federalist style came on the scene. The final addition, built in ~1750 was nearly three decades before the federalist style. There was absolutely nothing federalist about that house. You kind of lost your expert status, why should we tune in and listen to you.

  2. I just discovered this show when I traveled back east because my sister is ill. She rents an apartment in the Mercantile building in Plympton MA. The apartment she lives in has been beautifully renovated by these folks. I too love the old houses having grown up in Duxbury and my grate grandfather was part of Peabody & Stearns architectural firm in Boston. They put the tower on the custom house in Boston.

  3. Houses with History is my favorite new show. I watched last season and am watching the new season and can’t get enough. I like the fact that they update houses keeping in mind it’s original structure and they do a fabulous job. Thanks so much for such a quality show!
    Kate

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *