New Hampshire Architecture

Bow Bog Meetinghouse // 1835

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The Bow Bog Meetinghouse in Bow, New Hampshire, was built in 1835 for the First Methodist Episcopal Church and Society in town. Designed in the Greek and Gothic revival styles, the traditional form and paired entries with two stage belfry is adorned by finials and pilasters, showcasing an elegant blending of these two styles. built by George Washington Wheeler for the First Methodist Episcopal Church and Society of Bow in 1835. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church, mentioned Reverend Orlando Hinds as a contributor to her early religious teachings. She maintained close ties with this Church, donating funds for the bell in 1903. The Church provided religious instruction and social activities for 116 years and in 1951, the Church was closed and the Bow Bog Meeting House Society acquired the building. In 1970, they restored it to nearly its original condition, and it was acquired by the town in 1985.

Cyrus Colby Farmhouse // c.1826

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This historic farmhouse, tucked away on a quiet dead-end street in Bow, New Hampshire, is known as the Cyrus Colby Farmhouse. The residence dates to about 1826, and was likely built by Cyrus’ father, John Colby (1772-1836) and later inherited and occupied by his son, Cyrus. Cyrus Colby (1822-1900) lived at this house and farmed the land along the hillside and operated a successful family farm which included cornfields and grazing fields for their livestock with various barns on the property, notable for a post-and-beam dairy barn across the road that was built in 1878. The historic farm was purchased and restored, bringing the 200-year-old property a new life, suitable for modern living, while preserving the unique assemblage of farm buildings.

Bow Center Schoolhouse // 1894

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One of the many one-room schoolhouses of rural New England, this late-19th century example can be found in the town center of Bow, New Hampshire. The vernacular schoolhouse served hundreds of pupils in the northern part of town, from its construction in 1894 until 1924 when it was moved to its present location near the old Town Hall, where it was in use until 1945. In 1948, the School District sold the school to the nearby Baptist Church for Sunday school classes. The Town bought the building from the Church in 1968 and restored it as an historic site. Today, the rebuilt Snow Roller used in the early 1900s to pack snow down for passage of horse-drawn sleighs and wagons, and a mill stone, sit nearby the old schoolhouse as sort of an open-air museum.

Bow Baptist Church // 1832

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The Bow Baptist Church congregation was established in 1795 and reorganized in 1816. Prior to erecting its beautiful church building in 1832, meetings were held in member homes and the old Townhouse. Designed in the Gothic Revival style with some Greek Revival pilasters in the steeple, the church stands as an important early building for the community. Since its establishment, the congregation has advocated for causes of abolition and temperance and is presently known as the Crossroads Community Church, a non-denominational house of worship. Tragedy struck in 2018, when a lightning-strike hit the steeple, sparking an intense blaze that fire crews managed to prevent from spreading to the rest of the nearly 200-year-old structure. The steeple was completely destroyed, and the interior below sustained heavy water damage. Undeterred, the congregation worked to rebuild the steeple, bringing this nearly 200-year-old church back to her former glory.

Baker Free Library // 1914

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In 1912, Congressman Henry M. Baker, cousin of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, left in his will, $10,000 and the land next to his family home to the Town of Bow for the creation of a public library for his hometown. Architect, William McLean formerly of the firm, McLean and Wright, who specialized in library designs of the early 20th century, was selected to furnish plans for Bow’s new library, which employs a sort of Classical Revival/Beaux Arts design, similar to many Carnegie libraries of the time. As the town grew, the library has been expanded.

Bow Old Town Hall // 1847

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The town of Bow, New Hampshire, was incorporated in 1727 and named after its location along a bend, or “bow” in the Merrimack River at its easternmost boundary. Early town meetings were held in the town meetinghouse of 1770, and the second meetinghouse of 1801, until the separation of church and state became official in New Hampshire in 1819, with the passage of the Toleration Act. Until 1819, residents in New Hampshire conducted town business and religious services in the same building, the town meetinghouse. However, as towns diversified and religious freedom prospered, citizens grew less comfortable supporting one particular religious denomination with taxpayer money. Bow eventually secured funding to erect its first purpose-built town hall in 1847, this vernacular, two-story building on Bow Center Road. The small building served as the town hall for over 100 years, when in 1957, a growing suburban population required a larger, more modern town hall. The old Town Hall of Bow now serves as a meeting place for Town organizations and is rented out to Town residents for events.

Peirce Mansion // 1799

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The Peirce Mansion on Court Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is one of the finest, high-style Federal period homes in the United States. Built in 1799 for John Peirce (1746-1814), the residence is said to have been designed by Bradbury Johnson, a local carpenter and builder who was inspired by the designs of Charles Bulfinch. John Peirce began his career in the counting room of Daniel Rindge and worked in business and banking in Portsmouth. Peirce opposed the American rebellion against England but did not serve either side during the war. After the Revolution, in 1789, John Peirce was one of the leading citizens appointed to escort President George Washington around Portsmouth. The Peirce Mansion remained in the family over 150 years until it was sold by his descendants to the Middle Street Baptist Church in 1955, who extensively modified the residence to serve as a vestry and meeting space for church activities. The building was moved back from the road with the four tall chimneys were removed. Architecturally, the Peirce Mansion stands out for its massing, hip-roof with cupola adorned by a balustrade and urns, and the facade with elliptical arches, molded medallions, pilasters, and the Federal style entry treatment with fanlight transom and sidelights.

Jones-Sinclair House // 1865

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One of the finest Victorian-era residences in Portsmouth, the Jones-Sinclair House at 241 Middle Street, is a stately and oversized Second Empire style mansion built in the location of an even more significant home. Originally on this site, at the convergence of two busy streets, Thomas Haven, a wealthy merchant and half-brother to William Haven who lived across the street, built an impressive brick, Federal style mansion here in around 1818. Admiral George Washington Storer, Commander in Chief of the Brazil squadron of the U.S. Navy, later purchased the Federal style octagonal house. Mary Washington Storer, inherited the house after her father’s death in 1864, and she with her husband, Albert L. Jones, demolished the old octagonal-shaped house around 1865-1867, replacing it with this mansard-villa style mansion. By about 1890, Charles A. Sinclair and his wife, Emma, is said to have received the house as a gift from her uncle, the famous Portsmouth industrialist and politician, Frank Jones. 

William Haven House // c.1807

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William Haven (1770-1856) was the youngest son of Reverend Samuel Haven (1727-1806), the Pastor of South Church, and Mehitable Appleton Haven, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Appleton. William was a merchant that traveled extensively with his brothers, who employed him as their accountant, later working as a cashier of the New Hampshire Bank in Portsmouth, and later an accountant for the Portsmouth Savings Bank. William married Sophia Henderson in 1807, and soon-after, had this large residence on Middle Street built for his new family. By the 1870s, the residence was owned by William H. Hackett, who likely modernized the home with the Italianate style stair-hall window on the second floor, and portico and entry. 

Langley Boardman House // c.1804

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Langley Boardman (1774-1833) was an important builder and real estate developer who built his own home, this stately Federal style residence, at 152 Middle Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Langley Boardman later served as a Constitutional Councilor and as a State Senator, living here until his death in 1833. His son, Dr. John Howe Boardman, owned the home until his own death in 1882. The Boardman House is a high-style Federal style residence with a three-story, five-by-three-bay, rectangular, form. The building has a hipped roof and four tall brick chimneys, with flushboard siding at the facade. The facade has a double wood-paneled entrance door with fanlight and rectangular sidelights under an elliptical flat-roof porch with overhanging eaves and denticulated cornice supported by columns with scrolled capitals. At the facade second story, directly above the entrance, is a Palladian window with columns with scrolled capitals slightly recessed in an elliptical surround.

St. John’s Church, Portsmouth // 1807

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St. John’s Episcopal Church is located on Chapel Street, atop Church Hill near the historic commercial center of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A church has been located on this site since 1732, when British Anglicans built Queen’s Chapel here. It was named “Queen’s Chapel” after King George II’s wife, Queen Caroline, who donated many fine gifts to help the new parish. The congregation increased in growth alongside the community until a tragic fire on Christmas Eve in 1806, which destroyed over 300 buildings in Portsmouth including the original wooden structure of St. John’s and most of its contents. The parishioners immediately began to raise funds to erect the present brick church, with its cornerstone laid in June 1807. The Federal style church was one of the first known buildings by architect-engineer, Alexander Parris, in the time before he moved to Boston, designing many iconic buildings there. St. John’s Church of Portsmouth stands as the oldest Episcopal Parish in New Hampshire and was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Shillaber House // c.1768

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The Shillaber House on Washington Street in Portsmouth, is one of the most photogenic residences in the charming port city. The Georgian-style residence was likely built in the late-1760s, after Joseph Shillaber (1725-1791), a potter, purchased land here in 1766. The residence is of a typical form for 1760s Portsmouth, with a gambrel roof with pedimented dormers and a slightly off-center entry with Georgian style pilasters and pediment. In the later half of the 19th century, the house was “Victorianized” with a bracketed door hood and bay windows at the facade, but the house would be restored by later owners to a version close to its original conditions. The exposed clapboard siding adds to the home’s unique charm.

William Fraser House // c.1873

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In a town full of clapboards and shingles, brick houses really do stand out! This is the William Fraser House, located at 303 Pleasant Street in the ever-charming town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a stately example of the Second Empire style as a single-family residence. The house was built by 1873 for William James Fraser (1836-1930), a Canadian-born mason who immigrated to Portsmouth in 1850 and began a successful career as a mason, building many of the town’s great masonry buildings. The Fraser House has a slate mansard roof with overhanging eaves, bracketed cornice, and paired gable dormers and a double wood-paneled entrance door with transom under a flat roof portico.

John E. Colcord House // c.1870

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While Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is arguably best-known for Georgian and Federal style houses of the 18th and early 19th centuries, there are some great examples of Victorian style residences built after the Civil War to be discovered. This brick Second Empire style residence on Pleasant Street was built around 1870 and originally owned by Ebenezer Lord (1788-1877), who lived elsewhere in Portsmouth, likely gifting this home to his daughter, Susan (Lord) Colcord, and her husband, Charles Colcord. Both Charles and Susan died one year apart in 1872 and 1873 respectively, and the property was inherited by their son, John. John Edward Colcord worked as the Clerk at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The building has a Mansard roof with overhanging eaves, denticulated cornice, and three shed-roof dormers at the facade. Walls are brick and rest on a granite foundation, with a later, wood-frame side addition that employs similar design details of the main house. 

Governor Goodwin Mansion // 1811

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The Goodwin Mansion of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a landmark example of the Federal style of architecture and served as the home of Ichabod Goodwin and his wife, Sarah Parker Rice Goodwin. The home was built in 1811 and was originally located elsewhere in town, across from Goodwin Park, until it was moved to Strawbery Banke, saving the home from demolition. Ichabod Goodwin (1794-1882), a retired sea captain, purchased the home in 1832 and moved in with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Abigail. The same year, he partnered with Samuel Coues to establish the shipping firm of Coues & Goodwin, importing raw materials, such as cotton, produced by enslaved people in the Southern States and elsewhere. Mr. Goodwin was the governor of New Hampshire upon the outbreak of the Civil War and was a prominent businessman until his death. Ichabod’s wife, Sarah, raised their children and planned the elaborate garden, which Strawbery Banke recreated where the mansion stands today. The Goodwins kept their home updated with all the latest technology, such as gas lighting, coal grates and running water from the Portsmouth Aqueduct Company, which brought water into houses through wooden pipes. It remains a significant house museum and architectural landmark in Portsmouth.