Restoring and rehabilitating Penhallow House will have a major impact on the Museum’s mission.

Penhallow House, the only “saltbox” house remaining at Strawbery Banke, and one of very few left in this area, is rich in history. Samuel Penhallow built this house in 1750, the year of his marriage. A highly respected local magistrate and Deacon of the North Church, Penhallow lived here for more than sixty years.

The Penhallow House originally stood the southeast corner of Court and Pleasant Streets. It was moved to its present in 1862. At that time the tide still flowed into Puddle Dock, and Canoe Bridge spanned its upper end just south of this house on Washington Street.

Penhallow House. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS.

Penhallow House. David J. Murray/ClearEyePhoto.com

Many of the original c. 1750 architectural features along with floral wallpaper and linoleum of the 1950s still exist today. The house is one of the last historic houses to be restored at Strawbery Banke. The work to the interior and exterior of the Penhallow House is extensive. Rehabilitation is approached as a comprehensive, all-inclusive project treating the building.

Penhallow House, is one of four of the Museum’s historic structures — the Shapley-Drisco-Pridham, Sherburne, Lowd, and Jones Houses — that is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise and are experiencing deterioration due to salt water infiltration during storm surge and astronomically high tides.

After much consideration and consultation with experts including preservationists, engineers, and architects, Strawbery Banke made the decision to create a new foundation for the house, including the building of a wet-proof basement.

The Museum contracted with Preservation Timber Framing to conduct the restoration of the house. Preservation Timber Framing is a well-known building preservation company that has worked on dozens of historic structures, including homes, churches, barns, and museums, across Maine and New Hampshire for over 30 years. Their founder, Arron Sturgis, has strong connections to both Maine Preservation and the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.

In September, Preservation Timber Framing began the careful work of designing and preparing for the installation of a wet-proof basement with the design and engineering team, which is a major step in the groundwater-intrusion adaptation strategy.

On October 10-11, 2023, the house was carefully lifted approximately 10 feet into the air using hydraulics, structural steel, and cribbing. After the house is lifted, gravel and filter fabric will be added to the basement to encourage drainage to perimeter drains and the City of Portsmouth’s stormwater system, and a new foundation will be created. Alix Martin, Strawbery Banke Archaeologist, will monitor as work is carried out in the basement.

Exterior work on Penhallow House is expected to be finished in May of 2024. Once restored, the Museum plans to open the house for the first time to the public and interpret a 20th-century Black experience in the Penhallow House.

Funding for the Penhallow House restoration was provided in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom (NEH) and the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP). Additionally, funding came through the Cogswell Benevolent Trust, the Samuel P. Hunt Foundation, an anonymous foundation, and the McIninch Foundation, as well as from private donations to the Building Community: the Campaign for Strawbery Banke. 

The Strawbery Banke Fund (Annual Fund) allows the Museum to continue to spearhead preservation work, retain its professional and knowledgeable staff, and provide innovative educational programs. Click here or use the button below to make a gift. 

Penhallow House. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS.

SPOTLIGHT

Washington Street in Portsmouth was home to many African Americans, including Eleanor Cousins, who lived in Penhallow House with her family in the 1930s, and her brother Kenneth “Bunny” Richardson. Richardson (1914-1994) moved into the same apartment in the 1950s. He had grown up in Portsmouth, attended Whipple Junior High School, and was an entrepreneur: he led a dance band that performed across the Seacoast, offered barbershop services from his Penhallow apartment, and worked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where he became the Shipyard’s first Black Supervisor. He sat on the Equal Employment Opportunities Committee (EEO), administering and enforcing civil rights laws against workplace discrimination.

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