Richard Jackson, a woodworker, farmer, and mariner, raised this two-story house in 1664 — the oldest wood-frame house in New Hampshire. Imagine the man who built it — a woodworker, farmer, and mariner — raising this two-story house on his family’s 25-acre plot beside an inlet off the Piscataqua River north of Portsmouth’s central business district. The original plan gave you two rooms on each floor, flanking a massive central chimney, a familiar New England silhouette.
Not long after, a lean-to was added on the north side, sloping nearly to the ground, and further single-story additions were tacked onto the gable ends probably around 1764. The house echoes English post-medieval prototypes, yet it feels distinctly American in its extravagant use of wood. In 1968 it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and today it is a historic house museum owned by Historic New England — a property once acquired by William Sumner Appleton, founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
It opens to visitors two Saturdays a month between June and October. Notice the quiet inlet off the Piscataqua and the neighborhood stretching north toward Portsmouth's busy center.