"This house, removed within a few years, was one of the oldest in town. It was a two-story building, and when altered to a one-story house it was found to be filled in between the beams and rafters with stones and stubble, to make it arrow proof, leaving little doubt that it was built as a garrison house.

"The cellar kitchen was provided with wide doors to receive the hogsheads of molasses and rum that were stored there, when its owner, one of Mr. Ham’s ancestors, carried on a thriving West India trade. The schooners could then come up the Creek, and land their valuable cargoes at his very door."

Excerpted from The Portsmouth Guide Book, 1896, by Sarah Haven Foster.

Inscription reads, "Ham House-at Creek."