FRANKLIN — New Hampshire's favorite son Daniel Webster would probably have appreciated the highway that bears his name.

The state's greatest orator and 19th-century master of the sound bite would have no doubt liked the college and the schools, kindergartens and academic programs named in his honor. He would probably have been pleased with Webster Lake and he may even have liked the Daniel Webster Animal Hospital in Bedford and DW Pizza in Merrimack.

But Webster might be a little offended by the state's lack of interest and benign neglect of the site where he was born on Jan. 18, 1782, 230 years ago today.

The Daniel Webster Birthplace in Franklin is a 155-acre state park off North Road. The site includes a two-room frame house which some say is a replica and others claim is a restoration of the tiny home where Webster was born. Right next door is the Sawyer House, a 1794 farm house built by Stephen Sawyer, who bought the land from the Webster family when Daniel was just a toddler. With the help of a friend, Daniel Webster bought the land and Sawyer House sometime around 1849.

“Webster owned the house for two or three years before he died,” said Leigh Webb, former state representative for Franklin and former president of the Franklin Historical Society. “He may have spent some time there and he may have made some changes.”

Boarded-up mess

Today, the Sawyer house is a boarded-up mess with peeling paint, rotting floors, decaying plaster and mold. Administratively condemned and closed in 2005, the condition of the house is often described as dire.

Although it's off the beaten path and doesn't attract a significant amount of visitor traffic, Webb and other local historians feel the Webster birthplace is a key piece of the state's, and the nation's, heritage. And as a piece of property that was owned and valued by Webster, they feel the Sawyer house is a valuable historical asset.

“If the state doesn't do something soon to stabilize the Sawyer house, it will be lost,” said Webb. “It's an abomination, an appalling example of the way the state treats the memory of its favorite son.”

Webb has been fighting to preserve Webster's imprint on Franklin for years. He ran for state representative and was elected in 2006 with the hope of convincing New Hampshire to invest the money needed to stabilize the Sawyer house. He did manage to get $260,000 earmarked for repairs for the property.

In 2010, he lost his seat; the money was shuffled to another project, he said.

Original or not?

Webb has other concerns about the Webster birthplace. Like others, he believes the two-room frame house that's been pictured on thousands of postcards as the birthplace of Daniel Webster is a recreation built by a group of well-meaning citizens from Franklin who organized the Daniel Webster Birthplace Association in 1904.

According to Webster legend and lore, when Stephen Sawyer built his farmhouse on the site he bought from the Websters, he moved the little house where Daniel was born and added it to the back of his new house.

The Birthplace Association members claimed they detached the original house and returned it to the original foundation. But according to Webb, the Birthplace Association modeled the small house on an illustration included in Charles Lanman's biography of Webster, which was published while Webster was still alive.

The Birthplace Association members claimed that Webster “sanctioned” the illustration and that the cellar hole they discovered matched the dimensions of the piece they removed from the Sawyer house. However, Webb points out that an ell addition is still attached to the Sawyer house and while some of the original stones and boards might have been used, the small house at the birthplace site isn't what the Webster family cabin would have looked like.

“It's not the original house,” said Webb. “It was rebuilt based on several different ideas and sources. Urban myth is alive and well at the Daniel Webster Birthplace.”

Summer weekends only

But what troubles Webb isn't that the house is a replica. He's more concerned by the fact that it's only open on weekends from late June to early September. Residents and visitors have about 25 days a year to explore the house.

Webb acknowledges that the state doesn't have a lot of money for repairs to the Sawyer house or for a guide for the Webster home, but he has some suggestions. He's certain it wouldn't be hard to find a retiree to staff the Webster birthplace so it can at least remain open during the week throughout the summer.

As for the big money needed to fix the Sawyer House, he has a suggestion for that too.

“Tourism is the state's no. 2 industry,” he said “We spend a half a million on ads geared to tourists who would probably come anyway. We could use some of the funding for the Sawyer house.”

Raising interest

Evelyn Auger, a former selectman for Sanbornton, is also a local history buff who belongs to a group that does Revolutionary War re-enactments. Auger said the group wanted to hold an encampment at Webster's birth site, but the Division of Parks and Recreation quashed the idea.

“The state wouldn't let us do it,” said Auger. “I think it was because of the liability.”

Auger said an encampment would have brought in money to support the site. And it would have raised some new interest in Webster.

“He doesn't get the attention that he should,” she said. “The influence he had and the things that he did are still affecting our lives today.”

As the current curator of the Franklin Historical Society, Webb still works to keep Webster's influence and accomplishments front and center. Every year, he visits local schools with a presentation on Webster and his life in Franklin.

But he believes it's up to the state and elected officials to invest the time and resources needed to keep Webster's memory alive.

“They don't draw the connections between A and B,” he said. “They don't understand that their service to the state and the residents includes preserving their history.”