Support the Restoration of The Redwood Summer House

“We saw Mr.  Redwood’s garden, one of the finest I ever saw. In it grows all sorts of West India fruit. It has also West India flowers…and a fine Summer House.”

Samuel Drowne, June 23, 1767

Designed—like the original Library building itself—by Peter Harrison (1716-1775), America’s first architect, the Redwood Summer House is the oldest extant garden structure in America. Erected in 1766, it featured for many years in Redwood’s famed garden off of West Main Road in Portsmouth until removed to the Library grounds in 1916, where it later inspired John Russell Pope’s 1934 allée that frames its approach.

There are reasons for its improbable survival. For if many gazebos and pavilions were built before 1900, most were generic decorative structures, and thus often summarily dismantled. Not so for Redwood’s Summer House, which Harrison designed in his signature Palladian style. Its octagonal plan and elaborate exterior rustication insists on the nobility and permanence of Harrison’s more august structures.

Now, 259 years on, and reprising its 2006 renovation underwritten by Mrs. Alfred Wilsey in honor of her mother, the Summer House is in need of a comprehensive restoration. The project isn’t merely to restore it, but to activate it as a multifunctional asset: as a centerpiece of very select special events, such as wedding ceremonies or classical concerts; or as a third, outdoor gallery that isn’t entered but peered into. Strategically, it will serve as a beacon, drawing visitors onto the Redwood grounds and into the Library.

If you would like to learn more about this project or to support to this effort, please reach out to [email protected] or you may donate at this link.