Woodbury Langdon's 1785 home once occupied this site; the Rockingham Hotel replaced it in downtown Portsmouth. Built in 1885, this five-story brick building is a prominent early example of Colonial Revival architecture, consciously modeled in part as an homage to Woodbury Langdon, whose 1785 home once occupied this very site. Langdon, remembered here as a prominent merchant and politician, saw his house host leading figures of its day — and the hotel that replaced it continued that role, becoming one of the finest hotels in northern New England.
Today the hotel has been converted to condominiums, and it carries formal markers of its past: its facade reads 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 those entrances on the third and fourth floors, and stringcourses of brownstone trim separate the first and second floors, and the fourth and fifth. Recognized for its significance, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Paired five-bay facades, oriel bays on the third and fourth floors, and brownstone stringcourses mark this stretch of State Street between Middle and Fleet.