The Rockingham Hotel is a historic former

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

and contemporary condominium at 401 State Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. Built in 1885, it is a prominent early example of Colonial Revival architecture, built in part in homage to

Woodbury Langdon Woodbury Langdon (1739 – January 13, 1805) was a merchant, statesman and justice from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was the brother of John Langdon, a Founding Father who served as both senator from and Governor of New Hampshire, and father ...

, whose 1785 home occupied the site. Langdon's home and the hotel both played host to leading figures of their day, and the hotel was one of the finest in northern

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

. The hotel, now converted to condominiums, was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1982.

Description and history

The former Rockingham Hotel stands in downtown Portsmouth, on the north side of State Street between Middle and Fleet Streets. It is a five-story brick building, built in a conscious imitation of the 1785 home of

, a prominent merchant and politician which previously occupied the site. Its facade presents as two five-bay structures set side-by-side, each with a central entrance sheltered by a projecting rectangular portico. Two-story oriel window bays project above the entrances on the third and fourth floors. Stringcourses of brownstone trim separate the first and second floors, and the fourth and fifth floors. The building facade incorporates lions, terra cotta sculptures of the Four Seasons of Man, and busts of Langdon and Frank Jones, who built the hotel in 1885. Thomas Coburn converted the Langdon house into a hotel which opened November 1, 1833. Frank Jones, a Portsmouth mayor, congressman, and prominent local brewer bought it in 1870, tore it down, and built a

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

hotel building on the site. After a fire in 1884, Jones built the present structure. Through these constructions, the dining room of Woodbury Langdon, a high-quality rendition of domestic Georgian design, was retained. A hotel until 1973, the premises, either as the home of Langdon or one of the two hotel structures, hosted presidents

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

, Franklin Pierce,

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

Chester A. Arthur Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James ...

, William H. Taft and

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. Serving diners since the re-opening in 1887, the eastern entrance to the building enters upon a ladies' parlor to the left and a sitting room to the right. The elaborately decorated parlor, until recently referred to as the "Gold Room", has been converted to the bar that serves the nearby dining room. The latter, extending across the northeast rear of the building's main block, is now a commercial restaurant purchased by Adrienne and Paul Waterman in 2023 - The Library Restaurant. This room is one of the most elaborately decorated in the building. The mahogany woodwork is finished in a colonial revival style with pilasters that suggest those in the original Langdon dining room. Both the room's frieze and the mahogany-framed mantelpiece at the east end are ornamented with carved arabesques and festoons in a neo-Adamesque style that evokes the Federal period heritage of the hotel and the city of Portsmouth. The celling of the dining room is divided into geometric panels by a network of mahogany mouldings, and these panels are alternately filled with Lincrusta-Walton linoleum and with trompe I'oeil frescoes painted by John Gannon of Manchester, New Hampshire. Original

Shreve, Crump & Low Shreve, Crump & Low, a Boston, Massachusetts business, is the oldest purveyor of luxury goods in North America, responsible for trophies such as the Davis Cup and the Cy Young Award.

lighting lines the walls.

Gallery

References

{{NRHP in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Colonial Revival architecture in New Hampshire Hotel buildings completed in 1885 Buildings and structures in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Hotels in New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Description and history

Gallery

See also

References