Dis­cover 300 years of rich history

through the sto­ries from six generations

at the Warner House,One remark­able survivor.

Explore one of 18^th-​century Portsmouth’s influ­en­tial fam­i­lies room by room. Built c.1716 for ambi­tious immi­grant Capt. Archibald Macp­head­ris, the Warner House is one of the old­est urban brick res­i­dences in New Eng­land, boast­ing rich archi­tec­tural fea­tures of early-​Georgian style, includ­ing old growth-​wood pan­el­ing and fine mold­ings. Ascend­ing the cen­ter stair­case, encounter four unique wall murals, con­sid­ered the old­est extant wall murals in the coun­try. They offer a glimpse into the mind of Macpheadris.

In 1760, Macpheadris’s daugh­ter Mary Macp­head­ris Osborne mar­ried Portsmouth mer­chant Jonathan Warner, and the house expe­ri­enced exten­sive ren­o­va­tions to reflect the refined tastes of the Portsmouth elite. Through­out the 19^th cen­tury, the fam­ily descen­dants (Sher­burnes, Pen­hal­lows, Whip­ples) main­tained the house, and by the later half of the cen­tury, the fam­ily used the Warner House as a sum­mer home. Those later occu­pants treated the house as a shrine to its ances­tors, cre­at­ing a pri­vate museum of sorts. Eve­lyn Sher­burne, known as “Aunt Evvy,” even offered tours of the house to cer­tain known peo­ple. Shortly after her death, the Warner House Asso­ci­a­tion saved the house from pos­si­ble demo­li­tion and pur­chased the empty house in 1932, open­ing the Warner House to the pub­lic that sum­mer. Over the years, much of the fam­ily fur­nish­ings have returned to the house — includ­ing fam­ily por­traits and hand­some, 18^th-​century, Portsmouth-​made furniture.

Sea­son­ally, guided tours are offered on a first-​come, first-​serve basis, no appoint­ment nec­es­sary. Please check our hours of oper­a­tions and admis­sion fees for addi­tional infor­ma­tion. Our knowl­edge­able guides will lead you through family-​furnished rooms depict­ing dif­fer­ent time peri­ods of occu­pancy. A tour typ­i­cally takes 45 min­utes, but we will tai­lor the tour based upon your inter­ests. If there is a tour already in progress, there may be a min­i­mal wait period. The Warner House reserves the right to limit the num­ber of peo­ple for a tour.

Have a large group? The Warner House wel­comes bus groups as well as other orga­ni­za­tions and clubs. Please sched­ule group tours in advance. For more infor­ma­tion, contact the Warner House.

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