There can be no better proof that this house was well built than the fact that it has withstood the ravages of New England weather for nearly two hundred years and is still in good condition, the eighteen-inch walls of honest Dutch brick as staunch as the day they were laid. The gambrel roof, the Lutheran windows, and the quaint cupola all mark this three-storied house as a genuine old-timer, and the broad, simply ornamented doorways are suggestive of good old colonial hospitality, for this house was the scene of many a merrymaking. Over the brick pavement, laid herring-bone pattern, and up the stone steps came many a dignitary of the land, who lifted the ponderous brass knocker, and as the panelled door swung back on its long, strapped hinges, entered the spacious hall, which extends the entire length of the house.
There are a few pieces of the old mahogany furniture left, showing to best advantage against the white panelling of the wall. The staircase at the extreme left is hand-carved, the newel post being exceedingly plain.
The heavy iron bar that still securely fastens the entrance door bespeaks a time when the red men lurked in Portsmouth and made this protection a necessity. If reliance is to be placed on old traditions, the captain was a great friend of the Indians. The fact that two portraits of Indian chiefs are still hanging upon the wall seems to corroborate this story.
But the most distinctive and remarkable feature of this hall is the wall fresco, reaching from the foot of the stairs to the second-story landing, on the rough plaster of which are depicted various scenes, all the work of a master hand. These wonderful frescoes, covering an area of from four to five hundred feet, were hidden many years ago, and have only been exposed within the last sixty years. As proof of the fact that the frescoes must have been covered up for many years, the story is told of an old lady eighty years of age who was a constant visitor at the Warner house during her girlhood days. When shown these paintings she looked at them wonderingly and asserted that their existence was unknown at the time when she was an intimate of the family.
Plate XLVIII.—Living Room, Warner House.
Plate XLIX.—Parlor, Warner House.