Rundlet-May House

Lord House/John Paul Jones House

The peaceful townscape depicted here, with pedestrians conversing in the street while a dog strolls idly by, is today a busy intersection with a traffic light in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The painting reflects the growth patterns of many New England towns, with densely spaced older buildings at the core, surrounded by an outer ring of larger lots and wider streets. All three of the houses in the picture, an 1845 Gothic Revival cottage and two eighteenth-century buildings, still stand today, two of them much altered, while the white house in the center, the John Paul Jones House, is now operated by the Portsmouth Historical Society. Painted by William H. Titcomb in 1853, this work has been part of the furnishings of Historic New England’s Rundlet-May House since 1903 when James Rundlet May’s wife Mary Ann Morison inherited it.