MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Join the Portsmouth Historic House Associates on Friday September 9, for a unique opportunity to see some of the finest examples of original early wallpaper and period reproduction wallpapers in Portsmouth – and in New England. (Continued below)

The tour begins at 1:00 pm at the Wentworth-Gardner House and includes wallpapers and wall treatments there and in the Mark Wentworth Home (John Wentworth House); and the Jacob Wendell House, now the private home of Ronald Bourgeault and Jim Horan.

Wallace Nutting enthusiasts will particularly enjoy the two wall treatments inspired by Wallace Nutting at the Wentworth-Gardner House.  As part of his restoration of the house Nutting installed an 1816 scenic wallpaper by DuFour of Paris in the back parlor.  The grisaille paper “Jeux Olympique,” is filled with fanciful classical scenes.  Nutting also commissioned wall murals for the house which were restored by Julie Lucca in 2007.

For those who delight in original survivals, the tour offers an opportunity to view the magnificent original flocked wallpaper with its rare imported papier-mâché decorative border at the Mark Wentworth Home on Pleasant Street.  The paper and border were installed in the house by its original owner, Governor John Wentworth, about 1763.

The final stop is the Jacob Wendell House where Ron Bourgeault and Jim Horan will treat participants to a tour of the many reproduction wallpapers throughout the house, all of which are taken from papers found in New England, and two of which were taken from papers found in the Wendell House itself.  Bourgeault and Horan will provide personal commentary and anecdotes about the process of restoring the Wendell House.

Tour goers will also have a chance to see Woodbury Langdon’s recently restored tall case clock which now stands in the front hall of the Wendell House, looking nearly identical to the clock that was there when the house was photographed in the 1930s for John Mead Howells’s Architectural Heritage of the Piscataqua.  The tour will conclude at approximately 3:30pm.

This unique tour is open to the public, but space is very limited.  Tickets are $10 and must be purchased in advance.  Proceeds benefit the Portsmouth Historic House Associates.  Please call Sandra Rux at (603) 436-8420 to make your reservation.

ABOUT PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC HOUSES ASSICATES

PHHA was founded in 1946, is a consortium of local historic house museums that includes Historic New England (Jackson House, Gov. John Langdon House and the Rundlet-May House), the Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden, the Portsmouth Historical Society at the John Paul Jones House, Strawbery Banke Museum, the Warner House Association, the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion, and the Wentworth-Gardner and Tobias Lear Association.  PHHA is dedicated to fostering communication among Portsmouth's independent historic house museums to bring to a wider audience the history of Portsmouth, its architecture, its gardens, and its people.  Learn more about PHHA and its activities and other upcoming events at www.portsmouthhistorichouses.org.