Hart-Rice House

The Hart-Rice House, also known as the William Rice House and the Rice House, is located at 408 The Hill. Its original location was 95 Deer Street.

Samuel Hart, Jr. built this home in 1756 for the beautification of  an empty lot. A descendant, Daniel Hart, sold the home to William Rice in 1804. 

Captain Rice was a successful Portsmouth merchant who owned privateers that attacked English merchantmen during the War of 1812.
In 1814, after one of his ships captured bales of calico cloth, he invited his female relatives and friends to a ‘calico party’ at his house, where the ladies gleefully cut up the cloth and carried it home for new dresses. After his death in 1851, the home remained in his family estate for fifty years.

Portsmouth moved the elegant Georgian home to its current location on The Hill during the Urban Renewal movement of the 1960s. It now serves as business offices.