Warner House, c. 1716, Portsmouth, NH: Region’s Oldest Urban Brick House-History Bites: New England

Located in the heart of one of New England's most historically significant small cities, the Warner House was home to one of 18th century Portsmouth's influential families. Formerly known as the Macphydrus Warner House, the circa 1716 house was built for ambitious immigrant Archibald Macphydrus and is one of the oldest brick residences in New England. The Warner House is a two and a half story brick structure and is regarded as one of the finest early Georgian brick houses in New England. The house's cupola was listed in the original 1716 bill by master builder John Drew. The cupola was temporarily removed from the roof for restoration in June 2025 and was successfully reinstalled two months later with its original framing and a new copper roof. The first floor room was a place for evening entertainment and conversation when Jonathan Warner lived here in the 18th century. The original owner of the Warner House, Archibald Macphydrus, was an enterprising Scots-Irish sea captain who became one of Portsmouth's most successful entrepreneurs. He hired English master builder John Drew to design and build his new home in the style of an 18th century London townhouse. When completed, the Warner House was considered the most impressive residence in Portsmouth. Jonathan Warner lived in the house from 1760 to 1814. His portrait, a copy of a work of historical note, hangs over the fireplace. Warner was a successful merchant and he would marry Archibald Macphydrus's daughter Mary in 1760. Macphydrus was married to Sarah Wentworth, daughter of the provincial lieutenant governor John Wentworth. Macphydrus died in 1729 and the house passed to his wife and children, one of whom was Jonathan Warner's future wife Mary. Sarah Wentworth's brother, Royal Governor Benning Wentworth of the province of New Hampshire, occupied the Warner House for nearly 20 years and used it as the governor's mansion. This followed his sister's marriage to George Jaffrey, a wealthy Portsmouth merchant and business associate of her late husband. Eventually, Benning moved to his nearby country estate in nearby Little Harbor, now known as the Wentworth Coolidge Mansion. Reportedly, he left a few broken windows at the Warner House and never paid his sister rent. It was through his marriage to his second wife, Mary Macphydrus Osborne, in 1760 that Jonathan Warner acquired this house. Prominent in local affairs, Warner became a member of the king's council in 1766. Warner's Tory leanings caused him to refuse to sign the association test of March 1776, a loyalty oath to defend the colonies by force of arms. In spite of his loyalist politics, he was able to remain in Portsmouth throughout the Revolutionary War. On an art history note, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts acquired the original Blackburn portrait from the Warner family in 1883 for $300 and became the first portrait ever purchased by the museum. Ten years later, the Jonathan Warner portrait was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reflecting on the portrait, Karen Quinn of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, writes, Warner wears a fine wool suit with silver buttons and trim and poses with his hand in his waistcoat. The former implies his wealth, while the latter is indicative of his stature as a woman, according to 18th century etiquette books. Using a harmony of grays, the artist Blackburn has created a subtle yet sumptuous portrait of a successful man. The bookcase includes a collection of Polly Warner's books. Polly was the daughter of Jonathan and his first wife, Mary Nelson, and each of her books is stamped in gold lettering. In the downstairs parlor are four original paintings of Warner family members by Joseph Blackburn, who counted John Singleton Copley among his students. Painted in 1761, the year after Warner married Mary McPhedrus Osborne, the portraits, according to New Hampshire Home Magazine, show an affluent family at the height of their social power. Blackburn, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, left his studio in Boston through jealousy of his student John Singleton Copley's superior success. Some of Blackburn's paintings were long attributed to Copley. The Warner house, it should be noted, was home to at least eight enslaved people in the 1700s. They were said to have lived in a small wood L at the rear of the house. Two of them, Cato and Peter, were among 20 African men who signed a petition to the legislature in 1779 to abolish slavery. One of the highlights of a visit to the Warner house is viewing the color murals lining the plaster walls of the main staircase. Painted between 1718 and 1720, these are the nation's oldest colonial wall paintings still in their original place. The four murals are attributed to local artist Nehemiah Partridge and are a somewhat mysterious commentary on Archibald McPhedrus's early life in Britain and America. Images include the biblical scene of Isaac and Abraham, a woman spinning, and an eagle swooping in to snatch a chicken. Two Indian sachems on either side of the arch window represent the four Native Americans taken to London in 1710 by Peter Skylar to meet Queen Anne and seek help against the French in America. So impressed was she that military aid was granted for the colonial wars against the French. This and the other three Varel's portraits of the four Mohawk kings are held by the National Portrait Gallery of Canada. Another mystery notes New Hampshire Home Magazine is a male figure on horseback, possibly British gentry, who has both a gold crown and pea emblazoned on his sabre tache, a pocket used by cavalry officers for easy access to paper and also used as a portable writing desk. The side wall murals were formerly covered by wallpaper, however in 1853 a child playing on the stairs accidentally tore off a piece of paper revealing paint underneath. The murals were restored in the late 1980s and again in the early 2000s. Writing in antiques and fine art magazine, Joyce Geary Vogt, curator of the Warner House, observed that this room reflects the elegance and sophistication of one of the most prominent couples in 18th century Portsmouth and the surrounding region. The couple Geary Vogt refers to, of course, is Jonathan and Mary Warner and the room is perhaps most notable for its curtained canopy bed covered in green damask. The 1814 inventory of Jonathan Warner lists a full complement of green upholstered items in the parlor chamber, including a bedstead with bed hangings. According to Geary Vogt, rooms with green upholstery tended to be more important than those with blue. Since green was often associated with venus, felicity and pleasure, she continues, no nails. It was built in this manner to absorb the shock from the dancing and amplify the sound of the musicians playing. Another noteworthy feature of the ballroom is its sparkling blue walls. Coated in smalt, a unique treatment of crushed cobalt blue glass tossed onto rose-colored paint while wet, the room almost glitters when the sun shines through its windows. Warner descendants lived in the house until the 1930s when it was put up for sale, slated for demolition to make way for a gas station. The house was saved through the efforts of Portsmouth residents who raised money to purchase the Warner house in 1932 and make it a museum.