The Wentworth Gardiner House, 140 Mechanic St. (L), was built in 1760 by Madame Mark Hunting Wentworth as a wedding present for her son Thomas. It is now owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, having earlier been restored and renovated by Wallace Nutting and for a time owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Set on a terrace overlooking the harbor, the two-story house is painted a light ocher, with large white quoins. The principal facade is constructed of wood cut in blocks to simulate stone ashlar and enriched by well balanced fenestration. The front facade possesses an interesting 15-paneled door, flanked by Corinthian pilasters under a scrolled pediment. The pediment is enriched with fine modillions and a gilded pineapple, symbolizing hospitality. The first story has four 18-paned windows crowned with triangular pediments, while the five second-story windows are topped with broad lintels under a denticulated cornice. The hip roof is pierced with three dormers, the center one of which has a segmental pediment. The other facades are finished in clapboard siding set only a few inches to the weather. Shading the house is a linden tree, brought from England in 1760 and delivered at the door of the mansion by a vessel that docked in the tidewater at the front edge of the property.
From the front door, a wide central hall runs through the house enriched by fine wood carving. Through a central archway an elaborate stairway leads to a broad landing between the first and second floors. The stairway is guarded by a mahogany balustrade with spindles of varying design. A large window on the landing is surmounted by an elaborate keystone with a carved head said to be that of Queen Caroline. The walls of the landing and upper hall are completely paneled and flanked by finely carved Corinthian pilasters. The fine carving, second only to that in the Moffat-Ladd House, required the labor of three workmen for fourteen months.
The four rooms of the First Floor are also richly paneled, many of them with Dutch tile fireplaces; that in the north parlor has over it a 48-inch panel cut from a single piece of pine. All the rooms have windows with deeply splayed reveals, old wide floor-boards, and painted walls, except in the first-floor dining-room, where above the painted dado the walls have a paper especially noteworthy for its large scale, and its gray and bluish gray tones.
The rooms of the second floor match those of the first in detail. The Spinning Attic on the third floor is lined throughout with matched board ing bearing the original Indian red stain, made by a formula which has since been lost.
The service quarters contain a massive Kitchen with a windmill spit in the fireplace, similar to the one at Mount Vernon. In the flue a small windmill, connecting with a chain and gear, revolves the spit. The oven at the back was first heated by a fire within it, and after the ashes were raked out, was used for cooking. A great dresser, extending from floor to ceiling, contains original pewter and copper ware and an old set of china. - New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, Portsmouth section, pgs. 231-32
The house is now owned by the Wentworth-Gardner and Tobias Lear Houses Association. It is operated as a museum along with the nearby Tobias Lear house. The houses are open for tours from mid-June to mid-October Wednesday - Sunday 12 - 4 pm. There is an admission charge of $5 for adults and $2 for children. The house is listed as a National Historic Landmark