Above: Governor John Langdon House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; A white-washed, clapboard, coastal Georgian style, three-story mansion behind a white wooden fence atop a stone wall. Photo: Abigail Epplett
During my three-day trip of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I visited Governor John Langdon House, a property of Historic New England (HNE). With construction beginning in 1784, right before the Federalist Era of the United States, the exterior design of this oceanside mansion is mostly Georgian, an 18th century English architectural style, while the interior was originally Rococo, an 18th century French architectural style.
The original owner of the house, Portsmouth native John Langdon, was born to a wealthy Cornish-American family in 1741. Unlike many Cornish who became miners and mine engineers (like my ancestors), the Langdons were prosperous ship owning merchants active in the Transatlantic triangle trade routes. Langdon first entered politics in 1773 as a member of the New Hampshire Committee of Correspondence, where he corresponded with committees from other British American colonies about the increasing trade restrictions placed. Langdon held multiple federal political roles, serving in the Continental Congress and United States Congress. He was elected as President of New Hampshire for the first time in 1785 during the construction of his house. This role would later be renamed to Governor, and he would hold the position four times. Langdon’s career would last until 1812, a few days shy of his seventy-first birthday.
The tour of the Langdon House highlights the role of Cyrus Bruce, an African-American man initially enslaved by the Langdon family. After his emancipation, Bruce continued to work for the Langdons as a majordomo, the head butler who oversaw the estate and planned its many social events. As the wealthiest Black person in Portsmouth, Bruce used his status and wealth to advocate for his community and buy extravagant, colorful outfits. His bold fashion sense was captured in a stylized portrait by Richard Hayes, Jr., an award winning Portsmouth-based artist-in-residence at Langdon House who is nationally recognized for his portrayals of American life.
After the deaths of John Langdon, his wife Elizabeth Sherburne Langdon, and their daughter Eliza Langdon Elwyn, the property was sold outside the family in 1833. It then changed hands several times until 1877, when it was purchased by a relative of John Langdon, Woodbury Langdon. The younger Langdon later married John Langdon’s great-great granddaughter, Elizabeth Elwyn Langdon, not to be confused with the wife of John Langdon. The couple redecorated in the popular Colonial Revival style by employing the architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White.
The Langdons loved the details of a mansion once owned by the first Woodbury Langdon, the brother of John Langdon, which had been partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt as the Rockingham Hotel, now a condo complex. A new wing was added to John Langdon House to include an octagon dining room, whose design was likely based on a trend from the 1850s started by amateur architect Orson Squire Fowler. Other older details included “decorative moldings, medallions, and wall sconces”. The Langdons did not give up on modern amenities, incorporating a kitchen, washing room, and bathroom into the house and new extension.
Elizabeth meticulously bought properties surrounding the house to create a large garden space in the backyard. The gardens include a lengthy arbor covered with roses and grapes. This outdoor space, along with select rooms inside the mansion, can now be rented for weddings and other events. Elizabeth understood the architectural and historical importance of her property, so she willed the property to HNE upon her death in 1945, on the condition that her sister Helen Kremer could stay in the house for the remainder of her life. HNE began leading tours of the property in 1947 and has maintained the property as a museum ever since.
The Langdon House is open frequently during standard HNE house touring season, which runs from opening day in early June to closing day in mid October. Tours are on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with departure times on the hour from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Like most historic house tours, the building is not accessible to those who use a wheelchair, and those with limited mobility may have difficulty climbing the 18th century stairs. The free parking lot across from the mansion serves the entire city and tends to be crowded, so allow enough time to find a spot.
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Abigail Epplett leads a dual life as a freelance digital marketing consultant for small humanities-focused organizations and as a customer experience design creative specialist at lab equipment manufacturer Waters Corporation. She holds an MA in Museum Education from Tufts University, where she researched the history of New England from Plymouth to the Civil War. To learn more about her adventures with museums, visit her current blog at abbyeppletthistorian.blogspot.com.
Abigail is Historian-In-Residence at the National Museum of Mental Health Project: https://www.nmmhproject.org/