News and Information        

Coach House Project Receives State Grant

On November 10, thirty- three conservation and preservation projects received a total of $6 million in grants from the New Hampshire program charged with preserving land and historic places, the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).  The Moffatt-Ladd Coach House Rehabilitation Project received $60,000 toward its goal of $500,000, and was one of three sites in Portsmouth to receive one of this year's grants.    

The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Hampshire (NSCDA-NH) which owns and operates the Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden is actively involved in a Campaign for the Coach House, and has already raised, in gifts, pledges, and in-kind donations, more than $120,000 to add to the $60,000 in LCHIP funds.  The LCHIP grant brings us closer to our goal, and we are confident that we can begin work on the building itself in March 2008.  Preliminary planning and some site work will take place before that time.  We wish to thank the businesses that so far have made or pledged in-kind donations to the project:  Philip Kendrick, Architect; Petersen Engineering; Tangram 3DS; and Urban Tree Service.  

The Moffatt-Ladd Coach House is actually a combination of two structures:  an early warehouse and shop, to which a carriage bay was added.  It is an extremely rare survival of an eighteenth-century commercial structure on the Piscataqua River, the river that separates Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from Kittery, Maine.  The Rehabilitation project includes the structural stabilization and repair of the original structure, archaeological investigation of the site, the creation of an entire foundation for the building, and the addition of a lean-to along part of the south wall to house collections and provide a small staging area for hand-on programs and other events.  

For more information, or to contribute to the Coach House Rehabilitation effort, please contact Barbara M. Ward, director/curator, or Eleanore Sanderson and Nancy Borden, Campaign Committee Chairmen, at the Moffatt-ladd House & Garden, 154 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801.

"Women of the Moffatt-Ladd House" on the Move

The "Women of the Moffatt-Ladd House," are on the move again.  Drawing from our extensive collection of furnishings, clothing, personal items, and other household items owned by family members, the exhibition focuses on the lives of the Moffatt, Whipple, and Ladd women who lived in the house, and the members of the NSCDA-NH who, since 1912, have maintained and operated the Moffatt-Ladd House as an historic house museum.  

A new article by director/curator Barbara McLean Ward entitled "'Circumstances of Imperious Consequence:  Insecurity, independence, and History in the Lives of the Women of the Moffatt-Ladd House," has just been published in the Fall 2007 issue of Historical New Hampshire.  The journal, as well as the new guidebook to the house, The Moffatt-Ladd House:  From Mansion to Museum, are both available at the exhibition.  The Museum of New Hampshire History is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm, and on Sunday from 12 noon to 5:00 pm.  For more information, call the Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden at (603) 436-8221, or the Museum of New Hampshire History at (603) 228-6688.