The 1763 Georgian house was the home of William Whipple (1730–1785), a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War general.

[2][4] The house is an imposing three-story wood-frame structure, set on a rise overlooking the old part of Portsmouth Harbor.

The roof topped by a flat widow's walk surrounded by a low balustrade with urn finials.

[4] The house was built in 1763 by John Moffatt, one of the wealthiest men in colonial New Hampshire, and given to his son Samuel as a wedding present the following year.

The elder Moffatt repurchased the house from his son in 1768, and lived there with his daughter Catherine and her husband, Wiliam Whipple, until his death in 1785.