Four Portsmouth, NH Homes

Bachelor Quarters (circa 1807)

Arriving in 1807, Webster stayed in a men's rooming house which is described as "near the Buckminster House". This ornate, beautiful three-story home was one of the city's oldest and finest. Located at #1 Islington Street, across from what is today the Portsmouth Public Library, this 1720 mansion was torn down in the mid-twentieth century and is today a parking lot. Webster may have lived a few doors further down the street.

Vaughan Street (circa 1808)

Long before urban renewal tore up chunks of historic Portsmouth, Vaughan Street was the place to be. Revolution Era visitors like George Washington attended fashionable parties at the Assembly House there. From the center of town, the street stretched to a residential area where Daniel Webster and his new wife first set up housekeeping at the "Meserve" house built in 1760. Attorney Jeremiah Mason had just moved from here to his new large home in town and probably brokered the deal. The house reportedly had a distinctive garden. The house appears in a number of early guides, but by 1958 had become an unattractive storefront. It and the entire North End neighborhood was bulldozed soon after. Today Webster's second house has been replaced by the parking lot of the Portsmouth Parade Mall.

Pleasant Street (circa 1808-13)

Within two years of his arrival in town, Webster's successful law practice was bringing in $2,000 a year, four times his earlier small town income. The young attorney and his new wife purchased their first house near the corner of Pleasant and Court streets, just a stone's throw from the mansion of Governor John Langdon who had once entertained President George Washington. An 1884 Portsmouth guidebook says Webster's house was near the "Jenness house."

The house burned in 1813 during one of the many devastating fires that, combined with an embargo and the War of 1812, hit the local economy and spirit hard. The "Great Fire" burned 272 buildings. Webster was away at Congress in Washington, DC and his family (their second child was born in 1813) was visiting neighbors at the time of the fire. The uninsured house had cost $6,000 and Webster's law library too was lost. He noted in a letter that he also regretted the loss of the first skin of wine he had ever owned.

High Street (circa 1814-1816)

Financially wounded by the fire that had wiped out their previous home, the Webster's moved to a more modest house on High Street near where the city parking garage now stands. The house was built in 1785 with one gable end and one hip roof end. Small compared to the homes of his contemporaries, the four-room house was at the time attached to another wing which may have included a larger kitchen. With his own home taken by fire and his status in Washington, DC growing, it seems likely Webster was already planning his move to Massachusetts by this time. He may have stayed in this house only a short time. Immediately after the fire, Webster continued on in Washington while his family wintered with friends in Portsmouth, perhaps in the home of lawyer Jeremiah Mason.

The city's only surviving Webster home is mentioned in an 1884 guidebook and appears on early post cards. At the beginning of the 20th century, the house appears on city maps as either #58 or #60 High Street in "Webster Court." From 1937 to 1943 it appears in local phone books as a lodging called the "Webster House." In 1961 the house was saved from urban renewal and moved from the North End to the outskirts of the new Strawbery Banke Museum. Today it can be seen on Hancock Street in the South End. Owned by Strawbery Banke, the Webster House is currently rented to tenants and not open to the public.

Market Street Office (circa 1607-1616)

Webster maintained a small two room office within view of Market Square in downtown Portsmouth during his entire time here. His second floor site on the west side of the road was likely at #18 or #20 Market Street. The office was at the top of a steep set of stairs over a store, now a restaurant. It was described as a very ordinary space with "less furniture and more books than common." Over the years it has had many tenants, a sporting goods store, a print office, possibly a camera store and a used clothing boutique and private condo. No plaque marks the spot.

The Old North Church

There is one simple painted plaque in Market Square that mentions Daniel Webster. It says he was a warden at the Old North Church, today the most recognizable symbol of Portsmouth with a lighted white spire that defines the city skyline. Unfortunately, this is not the church building that Webster attended. The church he knew was redesigned in 1837 and then completely rebuilt in 1855.

Back from the dead, Daniel Webster would recognize the city’s many colonial homes, but Portsmouth, for the most part, no longer recognizes him.

Copyright © 2006 by J. Dennis Robinson. Dennis Robinson’s essay on the Whitier House in Amesbury appears in the latest edition of Accent Home and Garden. He is editor of the region web site SeacoastNH.com.

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