Matthew Livermore built the General Porter House about 1751, and its gambrel roof and five dormers face Haven Park on Livermore Street. Built about 1751 by Matthew Livermore, who was New Hampshire's first formally-educated lawyer, this two-and-a-half-story wood-frame house is a well-preserved example of a Portsmouth gambrel-roofed double house. Its clapboarded exterior stretches five bays wide and two deep, with additions on either side and an ell to the rear.
The gambrel roof is pierced by five dormers—the center dormer, like the center entry, wears a rounded roof while the others have gables. The main entrance sits at the center of the facade, topped by a rounded pediment and flanked by pilasters; a projecting right-side bay carries a secondary entrance also framed by pilasters. Over the centuries it has been home to a number of prominent individuals, and now houses residential condominiums.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Notice the graceful rounded pediment and the rhythm of dormers along the roofline, with Haven Park waiting just across the street.