Sheafe Warehouse

Sheafe Warehouse is one of America’s best-preserved examples of early 18th century waterfront architecture. It was originally built on interlocked tree trunks known as “cobwork” barely above the level of high tide. An overhanging second story allowed cargo to be lifted from the decks of gundalows and other small craft. The Revolutionary War Ship Ranger, built by Colonel James Hackett and commanded by John Paul Jones, is said to have been outfitted at Sheafe Warehouse. As Portsmouth’s waterfront declined in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the building was relegated to humble status. From 1850 until 1900, Joshua Stackpole used the structure as a carpenter shop and maintained it in only moderately good repair. In subsequent decades, Charles H. Stewart, proprietor of a nearby house of ill fame and an early antique dealer, used the building for storage. He sold it to the founders of Prescott Park in the 1930s, after which the structure was moved to its present location within the park and restored. After the warehouse was sold to the founders of Prescott Park, it was moved approximately 400 feet from its original location, only feet away from the Point of Graves cemetery, which survives today. A 1904 map shows that the waterway extended further inland beyond present day Marcy Street before it was filled by the city in 1899. An 1813 map places Sheafe Warehouse in the same location. In the nineteenth century it became the subject of antiquarian photographs and romantic paintings, and today it is noted for its ancient and well-preserved frame. The second floor is braced by wooden “knees” similar to those used in ship construction and often cut from the roots and trunks of native tamarack trees.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire · United States