The Moffatt-Ladd House, also known as the William Whipple House, is a historic house museum and

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...

, United States. The 1763

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

house was the home of

William Whipple William Whipple Jr. (January 25, 1731 NS Old_Style.html"_;"title="anuary_14,_1730_Old_Style">OS/nowiki>_–_November_28,_1785)_was_an_American_Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States.html" "title="Old_Style">OS.html" ;"title="Old_Style.ht ...

(1730–1785), a

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

, a signer of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

and Revolutionary War general. The house is now owned by the National Society of Colonial Dames in New Hampshire, and is open to the public. Among the contents are Whipple's sword and other personal items, along with a portrait of him. Outside is a

horse chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species n ...

tree that Whipple planted in 1776 with seeds that he brought back from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968. and

Description

The house is an imposing three-story wood-frame structure, set on a rise overlooking the old part of Portsmouth Harbor. It is roughly square, measuring about on each side, with a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. The exterior is covered in wood clapboards, with

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

at the corners. There are three chimneys, located at the sides of the house. The main facade is five bays wide; its windows on the first two levels are topped by segmented arch pediments, while the third level windows, which are smaller, butt against the roof cornice in Federal style. The roof topped by a flat

widow's walk A widow's walk, also known as a widow's watch or roofwalk, is a railed rooftop platform often having an inner cupola/turret frequently found on 19th-century North American coastal houses. The name is said to come from the wives of mariners, who ...

surrounded by a low balustrade with urn finials. The urn finials also appear on the fence that sets the house off from the street. The property includes a small office building dating to 1810.

History

The house was built in 1763 by John Moffatt, one of the wealthiest men in colonial New Hampshire, and given to his son Samuel as a wedding present the following year. The elder Moffatt repurchased the house from his son in 1768, and lived there with his daughter Catherine and her husband, Wiliam Whipple, until his death in 1784. The property was

entailed In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...

by Moffatt to Samuel's descendants, who acquired control of the property after legal disputes in 1818. The house passed the following year to Maria Tufton Haven Ladd, one of Samuel's granddaughters. Maria Ladd's son Alexander Hamilton Ladd occupied the house until his death in 1900, and was responsible for establishing the property's fine gardens. His children donated the house to the National Society of Colonial Dames in New Hampshire in 1911. The house was declared a

in 1968, and listed on 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 v ...

Photo gallery

Moffatt-Ladd House postcard.jpg, 1915 postcard The Moffatt-Ladd House, Portsmouth, NH.jpg, 1905 photo of the Moffatt-Ladd House

References

External links

Moffatt-Ladd House
{{Authority control National Historic Landmarks in New Hampshire Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Houses completed in 1763 Historic house museums in New Hampshire Biographical museums in New Hampshire Museums in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Houses in Portsmouth, New Hampshire National Society of the Colonial Dames of America National Register of Historic Places in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Homes of United States Founding Fathers

Description

History

Photo gallery

See also

References

External links