Michael Whidden, a joiner, built the Whidden-Ward House at 411 High Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Probably built in the late 1720s, and elsewhere thought to have been built in the early 1720s by Michael Whidden, a joiner, this is a well-preserved example of Georgian architecture that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The 2½-story L-shaped wood-frame building has a gabled and hipped roof, clapboarded exterior and a single brick chimney at one end.
Its main facade is five bays wide, the center entrance flanked by pilasters and topped by a four-light transom and a pedimented gable; the first-floor windows are also topped by gables. Inside you would find a particularly fine carved Georgian staircase, with an arched window at the landing. The house stands on the southwest side of High Street, southeast of its junction with Deer Street, and was originally located on Deer Street, an area platted for development in 1712.
It now sits within The Hill, a cluster of historic properties south of Deer Street created as part of a road widening project. Notice those neighboring historic buildings and the busy street junction just beyond.