Sullivan House named to National Register of Historic Places

The New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has announced that Sullivan House in Manchester has been listed to the United States Secretary of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places both for its high level of architectural integrity and for being a rare example of a “Little House” architectural design.

Originally referred to as “The House That Grows,” each Little House included not only an architectural plan but also landscape design and recommended interior furnishings. The series was an unusual business partnership between a magazine, “House and Garden,” and a department store, W. and J. Sloane.

W. and J. Sloane erected a full-scale replica of the first Little House in its showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York City in October 1932. The next month, “House and Garden” published its first article about the homes; six more would follow. 

Little Houses proposed that good taste could be attained on a modest budget and was designed for young couples seeking an affordable dwelling with room to expand as their families grew or their finances became more secure. 

The first Little House’s Colonial Revival architectural features include a white-painted exterior, columned porches and oversized multi-pane Palladian windows with fanlights at each end of the building’s main block. One-story wings on each side were designed with two bedrooms in one wing and both a kitchen and study in the other.

Inside, touches of Modernist décor provided a sleek and contemporary backdrop: white walls, black linoleum floors with white borders, and an emerald green vaulted ceiling in the two-story combination living and dining room.

Built in 1932-1933 for Priscilla Manning and her fiancé John Sullivan as a wedding gift from her maternal grandfather, Amoskeag Paper Company founder Frank Pierce Carpenter, Sullivan House is one of only six Little Houses of its style known to exist and is the only one to retain the original floor plan and virtually all of its finishes, features and furnishings.

The Sullivans made several alterations to the original design prior to construction: the bedroom wing was redesigned to have a master bedroom with an open porch at the south end, while the second wing enlarged the kitchen, added closets and expanded the footprint for a maid’s living quarters. The cellar was extended to be under the entire first floor and divided into multiple rooms.

A two-story hip-roofed wing supported by Tuscan columns was added in 1941 as the Sullivan family expanded. It was designed to be compatible with the original building, proving the advertised expandability of the Little House design.

Sullivan House is still owned by the family and receipts for all phases of the construction, as well as the architectural plans, landscape sketches and correspondence with the suppliers, survive in the family collection. Many of its original furnishings are still in place.

John Sullivan served in the Roosevelt Administration, including as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1940-1944. He later served as Secretary of the Navy under President Truman from 1946-1949. After the family moved to Washington, D.C., they spent Christmas, Easter and most of June in the house as well as during visits to New Hampshire.

Administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of historic resources worthy of preservation and is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect our historic and archaeological resources.

Listing to the National Register does not impose any new or additional restrictions or limitations on the use of private or non-federal properties. Listings identify historically significant properties and can serve as educational tools and increase heritage tourism opportunities. The rehabilitation of National Register-listed commercial or industrial buildings may qualify for certain federal tax provisions.

In New Hampshire, listing to the National Register makes applicable property owners eligible for grants such as the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program or LCHIP (lchip.org) and the Conservation License Plate Program (nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov/grants-incentives/conservation-license-plate-grant-program).

For more information on the National Register program in New Hampshire, please visit nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov or contact the Division of Historical Resources at 603-271-3583. 

New Hampshire's Division of Historical Resources, the State Historic Preservation Office, was established in 1974 and is part of the N.H. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. NHDHR’s mission is to preserve and celebrate New Hampshire’s irreplaceable historic resources through programs and services that provide education, stewardship, and protection. For more information, visit us online at nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov or by calling 603-271-3483.

###