Nine Historic Houses for One Low Price
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Richard Spicer at the harpsichord in Pitt Tavern at Strawbery Banke Museum.MARK YOUR CALENDAR

For just one evening every year, nine of the Portsmouth Historic Houses open their doors and gardens for the Twilight Tour. This year’s special hours are 5-8 pm on Friday, August 16. Tickets at $20 are good for admission to all 9 houses on during the balance of 2013 season. (Continued below)

 

To make the evening extra special, each house offers an entertainment -- brief talks on collections, storytelling, short plays and light refreshments. For antique collectors and connoisseurs of 18th and 19thcentury houses, The Twilight Tour is the perfect complement to the annual Northeast Auctions Marine, China Trade and Sporting Arts Auction, August 17 & 18. Visitors can attend the Auction preview and participate in the Twilight Tour the same night. 

Each ticket is good for one admission to each of the 9 participating houses on the night of the Twilight Tour and are also valid for the balance of the 2013 season for admission to any houses that visitors don’t get to on the night of the Tour. Proceeds of the tour benefit the member sites of the Portsmouth Historic House Associates, Inc. (PHHA), and PHHA joint programming.

Participating in the Twilight Tour are

Strawbery Banke Museum, 14 Hancock Street – offering a storyteller and light refreshments in the c. 1760 Pitt Tavern on Court Street.

Historic New England’s Governor John Langdon House, 143 Pleasant Street and the “White on White” exhibit of photography by Steve Rosenthal and the 1807 Rundlet-May House, 364 Middle Street.

The 1718 Warner House, corner of Daniel and Chapel Streets, where visitors will learn about Archibald MacPhaedris and the Mohawk sagamores depicted in the house murals

The 1758 John Paul Jones House, 43 Middle Street (corner of Middle and State Streets) and the “First Nations Diplomacy Opens the Portsmouth Door” exhibit commemorating the 300th anniversary of the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth will offer a display of 1713 cooking implements and refreshments , plus exhibits about Navy hero John  Paul Jones and a special tour of the museum’s outstanding collection of Portsmouth samplers. 

The 1763 Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden, 154 Market Street, will come alive with two dramatic presentations at 5:30 and 6:45 pm in the Great Hall, and family activities in the Warehouse. 

The Wentworth Lear Houses include the 1760 Wentworth Gardner House, and the 1740 Tobias Lear House, 50 Mechanic Street on the Portsmouth waterfront. They will offer light refreshments.

The 1750 Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion on Little Harbor Road will host Russell Bastedo, retired NH State Curator, for a talk on "How and Why Benning Wentworth Became New Hampshire's First Royal Governor." Complimentary trolley transportation provided from the Strawbery Banke parking lot on Hancock Street Wentworth-Coolidge is not within walking distance of downtown.

Tickets are: Adults: $20 ($18 in advance) and Children 12 and under: $10 ($8 in advance) and are available online from the Strawbery Banke Museum website (www.strawberybanke.org), at the Discover Portsmouth Center at 10 Middle Street and at each of the member museums.