Gilman Garrison House | |
Location | 12 Water St., Exeter, New Hampshire |
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Coordinates | 42°58′50″N70°56′42″W / 42.98056°N 70.94500°W |
Built | 1709 |
Part of | Exeter Waterfront Commercial Historic District (ID80000299) |
NRHP reference No. | 76000131 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 27, 1976 |
Designated CP | December 3, 1980 |
The Gilman Garrison House is a historic house museum at 12 Water Street in Exeter, New Hampshire. Built in 1709, it is a rare surviving example of a garrison house or fortified structure. It is owned by Historic New England, which operates the home as a house museum, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. [1]
The Gilman Garrison House stands near the eastern end of Exeter's historic waterfront commercial district, on the south side of Water Street at its junction with Clifford Street. It is a 2+1⁄2-story T-shaped structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. The oldest portion has a frame of oak timbers, with heaving wooden planking forming its walls. The upper floor projects over the ground floor and there are also wall structures indicative that part of the house could be isolated by means of a wooden portcullis. [2] Despite its unusual architectural features, there is no evidence that the house was built as a garrison or that it was ever attacked.
The Gilman family, proprietors of sawmills and a prominent early Exeter family involved in shipping, [3] built the log house in 1709. [4] It was owned late in the 18th century by Ebenezer Clifford, a master carpenter of renown throughout New Hampshire's Seacoast region, who took on Daniel Webster as a tenant while the latter attended Phillips Exeter Academy. [2] In the 20th century, it underwent restoration and was converted into a museum of Americana, which also showcased some of the building's distinctive features. It was acquired by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA, now Historic New England) in 1966. [5] The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. [1] [6] [7] In 2005 dendrochronology testing was conducted on the house, which confirmed a tree felling date of 1709.
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. Its population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. Home to Phillips Exeter Academy, a private university-preparatory school, Exeter is situated where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott River.
Nicholas Gilman Jr. was an American Founding Father, a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the U.S. Constitution, representing New Hampshire. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives during the first four Congresses and served in the U.S. Senate from 1805 until his death in 1814. His brother John Taylor Gilman was also very active in New Hampshire politics, serving as Governor of New Hampshire for 14 years, as well as a principal benefactor of Phillips Exeter Academy. Their childhood home in Exeter is now the American Independence Museum.
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The Richard Jackson House is a historic house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Built in 1664 by Richard Jackson, it is the oldest wood-frame house in New Hampshire. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968. It is now a historic house museum owned by Historic New England, and is open two Saturdays a month between June and October.
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The Ladd-Gilman House, also known as Cincinnati Memorial Hall, is a historic house at 1 Governors Lane in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States. The home was built about 1721 by Nathaniel Ladd as one of the state's first brick houses, and was subsequently clapboarded three decades later. The home was purchased in 1747 by Daniel Gilman, a prominent Exeter merchant. It served as the state treasury during the American Revolutionary War when two members of the Gilman family, Col. Nicholas Gilman and his son John Taylor Gilman, later the state's governor, served as treasurers of the state. Also born in the house was Founding Father Nicholas Gilman, Jr., a signer of the United States Constitution and U.S. senator from New Hampshire.
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The McIntire Garrison House is a historic house on Cider Hill Road in York, Maine. Built c. 1707, it is an extremely rare well-preserved example of a New England colonial log garrison house, built by settlers for defense against Native American attacks. The house, possibly the oldest in the state, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968.
The American Independence Museum is a historic house museum located in Exeter, New Hampshire. Its 1-acre (0.40 ha) campus includes two buildings: the Ladd-Gilman House, a registered National Historic Landmark built in 1721 by Nathaniel Ladd, and the Folsom Tavern, listed on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places and built in 1775 by Colonel Samuel Folsom. The museum was opened in 1991 after a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence known as a Dunlap Broadside was found in the Ladd-Gilman house, 200 years after its arrival in Exeter. It is the centerpiece of the museum’s collection. The museum’s mission is “Connecting America’s Revolutionary past with the present.”
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