Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden

I came here for the open house and garden event in June, so admission was waived. I was impressed by how all the volunteers/​staff talked passionately about each room and the Moffat-Ladd’s. I learned a lot in the kitchen, in particular. The garden in the back is absolutely beautiful, though. The flowers were at their peak, and I loved the subtle rolling hills. I can’t say I remember a lot about the history overall, but I’d recommend stopping by.

Happened upon this historic home while walking by. Very pleasant surprise at how well all the rooms and previous tenants lives were brought to life in the small group personal tour setting. Way more personable and enjoyable than typical docent-​style lectures. Highly recommended.

A terrible wedding venue.
The two women who run the house are miserable creatures. If you have an issue with people using your space for weddings, why open yourself up to the trouble?
The entire experience was agonizing, from getting yelled at for putting a piece of furniture on the grass to cleaning up all the tiny pieces of cake on the dirt left by the front road.
Each interaction with Marsha and Barbara was more rude than the last. They have no class, tact, or respect for any other human being.
Do not waste your time, money, or energy at this place.

Went here for a tour yesteray with the hubby. We were the only two on our tour. Another tour was already in progress so I don’t know if they just autmatically do it when you show up. That is a nice touch instead of making you wait BUT seems kind of like a waste of not doing on the hour etc.
Admission was a $ 6 «suggested donation» that I felt like was admission– and not so suggested. It is fine. Our tour guide was decent. Somewhat knowledgable but used «blah blah blah» a few times during the tour which I thought was kind of unprofessional. After the tour we got to walk around the gardens which were pretty. Not as expensive as Strawberry banke BUT not as much to see as there was there. I guess i lucked out when I went to Strawberry bank last year because they were letting Historice New England members in for free so for me that was the better deal :-)
Still this is a great house to see. Not alot of pieces true to the house but they did try and bring in period pieces that were popular during the times that people resided in the house.

I’m even cheaper than Francesca R. I waited until the Moffatt-​Ladd house had an open house before I went. It’s a very old (by US standards) house with fairly good authenticity. It’s cool to see how people lived, to discover that houses didn’t have dining rooms until about 1800, and people slept sitting up. The house is big and unlike most big old houses in Portsmouth, it was never broken up into apartments or converted into a business.
The downside to the house is that they still have a lot more work to do fixing it up, especially outside. Some of the windows are covered with plywood and everything needs a good scraping and a coat of paint. If you like this kind of historical stuff, check it out. If you really want to help, don’t do what I did. Go when you have to pay the $ 6 to get it. And if you really feel sorry like you want to help them even more, there’s a box in the gift shop for donations.

If you’re cheap like me, you don’t want to pony up $ 15 to visit Strawberry-​Banke. Well guess what? You can get a little historical sampling at the Moffatt-​Ladd house right on Market Street. It’s $ 2 if you just want to check out the gardens, and $ 6 with the tour. The house is three stories and chock a block with historical doo-​dads. You’ll be led around by an adorable little old lady with a thick New England accent who starts every sentence with an effervescent «And agaaaaain, this wallpaper is the original…» It’s a 40 — 45 minute tour, very informative and charming. The garden is gorgeous so it’s worth $ 2 to take a peek.