Gilman-Clifford or Garrison House - Exeter, New Hampshire
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 42° 58.846 W 070° 56.679
19T E 341443 N 4760513
Historic house now operated as a museum by Historic New England in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Waymark Code: WMB25N
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 03/25/2011
Views: 7
The Gilman-Clifford or Garrison House (not open}^ cor. Water and Clifford Sts. (R), is the second oldest, if not the oldest, building in New Hampshire. The main part of this rambling, red ' wooden castle ' was built between 1650 and 1658 by Councillor John Oilman and was designed to thwart Indian attack. The upper story projected a foot or more beyond the lower. This overhang is visible at the back of the house. The windows were hardly more than loopholes and the door had a portcullis that could be instantly dropped. A small portion of the wall is stripped to the original timber to show the joining of the square logs.
The front wing, which projects toward the street, was added by Brigadier General Peter Oilman in 1772 to provide a proper place of entertainment for Governor John Wentworth and his staff. The interior of these rooms is distinguished by paneling and elaborately carved woodwork. The Royal Governor liked to visit a battalion he had formed at Exeter called the 'Cadets,' whom he had brilliantly uniformed and equipped and of whom he was very proud, although they repaid his courtesies by taking his weapons and marching away to Cambridge as soon as they heard of the affair at Lexington. John Phillips, founder of Phillips Exeter Academy, was colonel of the corps.
While a student at the Academy in 1796, Daniel Webster boarded at this house with the family of Ebenezer Clifford, a noted woodworker who made the paneling in the old room, now displayed in the Metropolitan Art Museum of New York. The youth's crude table manners often shocked Clifford, but knowing that the boy was sensitive he was reluctant to correct him. Instead, Clifford fell upon the scheme of reproving the apprentice of his shop, who in the homely fashion of the time sat at the same table, for the same faults and was relieved to see the quick-witted young Webster mend his table etiquette accordingly. - New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, Exeter section, pg. 165.
More current documentation indicates a later construction date circa 1709. The house was purchased by Historic New England in 1966. They have preserved and restored the house and now operate it as a house museum. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.