Leaving a Legacy: Charles & Sylvelin Paine

Charlie and Sylvelin Paine at their home on Whitton Pond. © Family & Friends of the Paine Family

When Charles Jackson Paine transferred his Whitton Pond property to his beloved wife, Sylvelin, shortly before his death in 1994, his instructions were simple: sell it only if she needed to out of financial necessity.  His wish was for The Nature Conservancy to care for the land after he and Sylvelin were both gone.  Thanks to a promise kept nearly 15 years later, Charlie’s wish is now reality.

Charlie Paine loved his land and small cabin on Whitton Pond in the Mount Washington Valley.  He purchased the 93 acres with 3,200 feet of frontage on the pristine shores of the pond in Madison in 1956.  No doubt an escape from the routine and rigors of his career, Paine enjoyed the remote location for duck hunting and nature observation. 

Born in 1908 in Weston, Massachusetts, Charlie followed his father in a long career as a stock trader in Boston.  Then as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve, he was called to active duty at the age of 33 in 1941.  For four years during the Second World War he served in the Air Transport’s Command Alaska Division, flying 34 combat missions as part of the Eleventh Air Force in the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre of Operations.

Over the second half of their lives, the couple summered in the rustic cabin that overlooked the waters of Whitton Pond and wintered in Ocala, Florida, where Sylvelin was known for breeding race horses. Before passing away at age 86, Charlie transferred the Whitton Pond property to his wife in hopes that it would eventually go to The Nature Conservancy “to be held in perpetual trust in a wild and natural state.”  Sylvelin went on to spend her last years in Florida and was able to honor her husband’s wishes when the property was bequeathed to the Conservancy last May at the time of her death. 

Highly unique, Whitton Pond is one of the few remaining undeveloped ponds in the Mount Washington Valley. Only six landowners own the pond frontage and the bulk of the land in the 700-acre watershed.  The Whitton Pond watershed is host to several unique natural communities and populations of rare species including the federally protected orchid, small whorled pogonia, fern-leaved false foxglove and three birds orchid.

The Paine property adds to a 314-acre conservation easement already held by the New Hampshire Chapter at Whitton Pond, and the Conservancy is currently working with two other area landowners on easements.  Land around the pond is also protected by private covenants that restrict building and certain land uses.  The Conservancy is pleased to join this group of conservation-minded Whitton Pond landowners.

The Nature Conservancy will fulfill the wishes of Charles Paine and his wife Sylvelin by keeping the land in its wild and natural state.  We are honored to be entrusted with the property he cherished and enjoyed so much during his lifetime.