Lady Pepperrell House

Lady Pepperrell House
Location Kittery Point, Maine
Coordinates 43°4′53″N 70°43′0″W / 43.08139°N 70.71667°W / 43.08139; -70.71667Coordinates: 43°4′53″N 70°43′0″W / 43.08139°N 70.71667°W / 43.08139; -70.71667
Area less than one acre
Built 1760
Architect Unknown
Architectural style Georgian
NRHP Reference # 66000094 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 15, 1966
Designated NHL October 9, 1960[2]

The Lady Pepperrell House is a historic house on State Route 103, opposite the Congregational church, in Kittery Point, Maine, United States. Built in 1760 by Lady Mary Pepperrell, widow of Sir William Pepperrell, the house is one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the northeastern United States. Pepperrell was the only colonial American to be honored with a baronetcy, given by King George II for his leadership of the successful 1745 expedition against the French Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960. The house is privately owned, but subject to preservation restrictions held by Historic New England.

Description and history

The Lady Pepperrell House is a two story wood frame structure, five bays wide, with a hip roof and four chimneys, two placed symmetrically on each side. The center bay of the main facade projects, and is topped by a low-pitch fully enclosed gabled pediment. This projecting section is finished in flushboard, while the rest of the house clapboarded. It has fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals rising its full height, and the gable, like the rest of the roofline, is modillioned. The main entry is on the first level of this projecting section, and it is also flanked by fluted pilasters, which support curved brackets and a slightly projecting architrave. The building's corners have flush-boarded quoining. A Colonial Revival porch, sympathetic in styling to the main block, extends to its left. This porch was added in 1922 along with a matching one to the right, which has since been removed. A two-story kitchen ell extends to the rear of the house.[3]

The interior has a fairly typical Georgian center-hall layout, with two rooms on either side of a large central hall. The public spaces feature elaborate and high-quality woodwork, which has been well preserved.[3]

Lady Pepperrell was born Mary Hirst in 1704 to a merchant in Boston, Massachusetts. She married Captain William Pepperrell, a merchant and major landowner in what is now southern Maine (but was then part of Massachusetts), in 1723, and settled into his family home in Kittery Point. Pepperrell was appointed by Governor William Shirley to lead the 1745 expedition against Fortress Louisbourg, and was awarded a baronetcy by King George II for his success in that endeavour.[4] When Lord Pepperrell died in 1759, he was one of the wealthiest men in Massachusetts.[3]

In 1760 Lady Pepperrell commissioned the construction of this house. Its style is reminiscent of the high Georgian style then popular in England in part because she imported craftsmen from there to work on the house. She made the house her home until her death in 1789, after which it went through a succession of owners. In 1942 the house was given to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England or HNE), which restored the house and operated it as a museum. In 1985, HNE sold the house into private hands, retaining preservation and conservation easements to limit alterations to its historic fabric.[4] It remains in private hands, but is open to the public several times a year.[5]

The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.[2][1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Lady Pepperrell House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  3. 1 2 3 "NHL nomination for Lady Pepperrell House" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-11-10.
  4. 1 2 "Lady Pepperrell House". Historic New England. Retrieved 2014-11-10.
  5. ↑ http://www.portcity.org/historichomes.cfm
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