History 

Built in 1760, the Wentworth-Gardner house is one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the country. The house was a wedding gift from Mark Hunking Wentworth and Elizabeth Ridge Wentworth to their son, Thomas, and his wife, Anne. The Wentworth family was a powerful force in colonial New Hampshire, and Thomas Wentworth’s brother, John Wentworth, was the last royal governor of New Hampshire.

In 1793, Major William Gardner bought the house and moved in with his second wife, Elizabeth. Major Gardner lived in the house for forty years until his death at age 83. Major William Gardner’s third wife, Sarah Purcell Gardner, remained in the house until 1854.

In 1915, the house was purchased by Wallace Nutting, a photographer and antiquarian. He restored the home in the Colonial Revival manner and photographed models in many of its rooms. 

In 1918, during the first World War, Nutting offered the house for sale and it was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Met prized the house for its detailed carving and nearly perfect Georgian architecture, and planned to have it moved from Portsmouth to New York City.

After the Stock Market crash of 1929, the Depression put to rest any ideas of moving the house to New York City. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) furnished the house and briefly operated it as a house museum. 

In 1940, the house was purchased by a group of preservation-minded local citizens who established what is now the Wentworth-Gardner Historic House Association.