After surviving the Titanic, Richard Beckwith sought peace and quiet. He found it by constructing 58 Wiggin Farm Road on Squam Lake, in the picturesque town of Moultonborough, N.H.

The summer property is listed for $9,500,000.

Beckwith, his wife, and teenage daughter were passengers on the Titanic, but made it into the lifeboats. Some claim their story was potentially a source of inspiration for the famed 1997 film “Titanic.” Legend has it that the family was aboard the ship in an attempt to get the teen away from a potential boyfriend, The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story on the listing, reported. Ultimately, the boyfriend found himself on the lifeboat as well, and the parents had a change of heart. 

“Some newspaper accounts, filed just after the survivors reached New York, claimed that Behr had proposed to Helen while they were still in their lifeboat,” the Journal wrote, adding that the couple later married with the Beckwith parents’ blessing.

These days, the eight-bed, 3.5-bath property, which was built in 1899, is a shingled home on the market for the first time in more than a century. Set on just under 4 acres and boasting 964 feet of shorefront, the home measures 5,605 square feet.

A long drive through the woods leads to the luxury property, which welcomes guests up a few steps onto the wraparound porch, which has screened-in sections. The entrance leads into a welcoming living room, home to a three-sided white brick fireplace under beautiful wooden beams.

But it’s the view that strikes you upon entrance. 

“When you walk into the house, you’re just immediately drawn to the views of the lake,” said Joe Dussault of Dussault Real Estate, who is the co-listing agent with Jacalyn Dussault. “These long lake views [see] across to the Squam Range. And if the sun were going down, you would have views of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.”

Wood floors run throughout the home, which features many original elements, including the door handles and windows. The dining room also has a share of the three-sided fireplace in the corner. From there, a walk-through pantry leads into the kitchen, which blends original rustic features with more modern white appliances. It also has a second pantry for additional storage. There’s a small parlor on the first floor with access to a half-bath, as well as Palladian doors that open to the screened-in porch. 

A staircase from the living room leads to the second floor, which is home to eight bedrooms and three bathrooms, each with claw-foot tubs. The primary suite boasts stunning views of the outdoors on three sides. All of the bedrooms have beadboard walls and ceilings, which emphasize the rustic nature of the home. 

A staircase leads up to the partially finished third floor, and there is a small unfinished basement.

There’s a 555-square-foot boathouse on the property with dock space on both sides, as well as a few other small structures: a former ice house, a pump house, and an old chicken coop. There’s also a two-car detached garage. A sandy swimming area and a large dock make it easy to go for a swim. The home could potentially be winterized for year-round use. 

If the property gets its $9,500,000 asking price, it would be the highest ever paid for a home on Squam Lake, Dussault told the WSJ.

Jacalyn Dussault emphasized the tranquility of Squam Lake, thanks to its protection by conservation easements in comparison to other bodies of water in the region.

Kamala Harris speaks to the New Hamsphire Institute of Politics during the 2020 presidential primary.

Poll after poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris locked in a margin-of-error wrestling match with former President Donald Trump over the seven swing states that will pick the next president.

And none of those states are New Hampshire.

Which is why political observes in New Hampshire and nationwide are scratching their heads over Harris’s decision to take one of the 63 campaign days she has left and spend it in Portsmouth this Wednesday. Veteran campaign insiders from both sides of the aisle told NHJournal they didn’t understand the decision and could only offer speculation. Speculation, they conceded, that didn’t entirely make sense.

The media advisory from the campaign simply says the vice president “will travel to the Greater Portsmouth area for a campaign event.”

The post from Marisa Nahem, who handles communications for the Harris campaign in New Hampshire, reads: “Kamala Harris is coming to NH & she’ll be greeted by amazing energy!”

What veteran political reporter Mark Halperin reads into all this is that something is up for Harris in New Hampshire.

“Kamala Harris to New Hampshire is very interesting,” Halperin posted on Twitter. “If the reason is not because Democratic internal [polls] show the race close, I’m eager to hear the alternate explanation. Endorsing a House candidate in a primary? Raising money from a Seacoast billionaire?”

So, is Harris coming to shore up her support in the Granite State? “Maybe it’s for insurance,” one Democrat told NHJournal on background.

But public polls show New Hampshire is, as it has been in seven of the previous eight presidential elections, a safe Democratic state. The Cook Political Report shifted the state from “leans Democrat” to “likely Democrat” after the party pushed out President Joe Biden and replaced him with Harris.

Recent polling by both St. Anselm and the University of New Hampshire’ gives Harris an eight-point lead over Trump. And two additional sources confirmed to NHJournal that their private polling has also found a solid Harris lead.

And then there’s an email sent by Massachusetts Trump staffer — or rather, former staffer — Tom Mountain, declaring “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state.”

According to reporting by The Boston Globe, Mountain said was “sure to lose by an even higher margin” in New Hampshire than in 2016 and 2020, citing “campaign data/research.”

“We’re off the map,” one New Hampshire GOP source familiar with the state of the Trump campaign told NHJournal.

So, why is Harris coming here?

Some New Hampshire political operatives speculate the visit may be to repair relationships from the First in the Nation presidential primary fiasco, when Biden directed the Democratic National Committee to strip the Granite State of its place on the primary calendar. They note potential 2028 candidates like Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) made Labor Day weekend appearances in New Hampshire.

“It’s September. You don’t burn a candidate’s time like that in an uncompetitive state unless someone is writing her a $5 million check,” one national political pro told NHJournal. “The First in the Nation primary can wait until January.”

Fundraising appears to be the most likely answer. Several campaign professionals in both parties said it’s very possible Harris is coming to the Boston area for a big-dollar event and a quick trip to Portsmouth will get media coverage in Maine and New Hampshire. Not exactly Michigan, Nevada, or North Carolina, but not entirely wasted, either.

“You can make bank in Massachusetts and dip your toe in New Hampshire-Maine in less than 8 hours combined,” one Massachusetts GOP source noted.

Interestingly, Harris is coming just days before the primary that will determine the Democratic ticket in November. If she delayed her trip a week, she’d be able to appear with the nominees for governor and the Second Congressional District. Does that mean an endorsement in one of those races might be on the agenda this Wednesday?

“There is no way,” one longtime New Hampshire Democratic operative told NHJournal.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign insists that New Hampshire is on the board and the Harris team knows it.

“President Trump’s campaign maintains an on-the-ground presence in New Hampshire, including staff and offices, while Kamala Harris is parachuting in because she knows that the Granite State is in play,” campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes told the Boston Globe.

A Donald Trump campaign volunteer in Massachusetts “will no longer have any involvement” in the campaign after he warned in an email that New Hampshire was “no longer a battleground state,” according to the Boston Globe on Monday.

In an email, which was obtained by the Globe, Tom Mountain, a Massachusetts volunteer for the Trump campaign, wrote to other Trump volunteers in the state that “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state,” and instead directed supporters to focus on Pennsylvania, another battleground state.

Mountain continued in his email by stating that Trump was “sure to lose by an even higher margin” in New Hampshire than in 2016 and 2020, citing “campaign data/research.”

In 2020, Joe Biden won the state with 52 percent of the vote to Trump’s 45 percent, while in 2016, Hillary Clinton was able to carry the state by around 2,700 votes.

In addition, Mountain claimed resources would be suspended and the campaign would not send Trump or high-profile figures central to the campaign to the state.

However, in an emailed response to Newsweek, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied Mountain’s claims and reiterated the campaign’s efforts in New Hampshire stating it “maintains an on-the-ground presence” in the state.

“This isn’t true: President Trump’s campaign maintains an on-the-ground presence in New Hampshire, including staff and offices, while Kamala Harris is parachuting in because she knows that the Granite State is in play. We look forward to building on the momentum that we have grown since the primary and sending New Hampshire’s four electoral votes to President Trump’s column on November 5,” Leavitt said.

In addition, the Trump campaign clarified Mountain is a volunteer and does not hold a “formal role” in the campaign, adding that he is not privy to internal deliberations about campaign strategy or plans for other states.

“It appears this was just an independent attempt to generate enthusiasm for volunteer deployments to a nearby major swing state,” the Trump campaign said in an emailed statement.

Mountain, who had served as one of several vice chairs for the former president’s effort in Massachusetts, is also a former official with the Massachusetts GOP.

This comes as New Hampshire has voted Democratic in all but one election since 1992, but it is considered a battleground state in most election cycles because control of its state legislature and congressional seats have switched back and forth between Republicans and Democrats.

Meanwhile, battleground states, including New Hampshire, will play a key role in determining the result of this year’s election due to the Electoral College, which awards each state a certain number of electoral votes based on population. A presidential candidate needs to secure 270 electoral votes for victory, and winning the national popular vote does not guarantee success. Surveys from battleground states may be more telling than those of national polls.

In July, in the first public survey of New Hampshire voters since President Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Harris had a lead of 6 points over the former president.

The poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire between July 23 and 25, shows Harris with a 49 to 43 percent lead over Trump. The poll surveyed 3,016 people and had a margin of error of 1.8 percent.

In a Saint Anselm College Survey Center (SASC) poll of 2,083 New Hampshire registered voters conducted between July 24 and 25, Harris had a 50-44 percent margin over Trump. The poll had a 2.1 percent margin of error.

However, Harris was not previously leading in the state. In a poll conducted by the New Hampshire Journal and Praecones Analytica after the Republican convention but before Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 campaign when Harris was matched up against Trump in a head-to-head, her Republican rival was leading her by one point, on 40 percent to her 39 percent.

This comes as the Democratic presidential ticket has seen a dramatic reversal in the polls since Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Harris. She has surged in the polls—leading Trump in national and swing state polling averages whereas Biden was generally behind.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average on Monday, the vice president is 7 points ahead of Trump in the state, with 50.3 percent to his 43.2 percent.

Although Harris is leading in the polling averages, recent polls in Pennsylvania have also shown the pair tied, including the latest surveys conducted by Wick and Emerson College between August 25 and 29.

Meanwhile, other polls have shown Trump in the lead, including a Trafalgar Group poll from August 30, which put the former president 2 points ahead of Harris among likely voters. A SoCal Strategies poll from August 23 put the former president 1 point ahead, while a Fabrizio Ward poll from August 21 also put the Republican 1 point ahead in a head-to-head matchup.