A 1758 Portsmouth house museum where the naval hero John Paul Jones once boarded; visitors and investigators report an attic apparition, moving objects, and the smell of pipe tobacco.
43 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Museum admission for guided tours; open seasonally Memorial Day weekend through October, Thursday-Monday 10am-4pm, plus a free Veterans Day opening. See portsmouthhistory.org/jpj for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Two-and-a-half-story 18th-century house with stairs; the upper floors and attic are reached by period staircases. Downtown Portsmouth sidewalks and lots.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1758 · Built 1758 by sea captain Gregory Purcell · John Paul Jones boarded here in 1777 and again 1781-82 · Operated as a museum by the Portsmouth Historical Society since 1920 · National Historic Landmark (designated 1972)
The John Paul Jones House at 43 Middle Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was built in 1758 by Gregory Purcell, a sea captain and merchant. After Purcell's death his widow operated the Georgian house as a boarding establishment, and it is in that period that the building gained the name it carries today.
John Paul Jones, the Scottish-born commander who became one of the most celebrated naval officers of the American Revolution, lodged in the house twice. He boarded there in 1777 and again in 1781-82 while supervising the fitting-out of warships being built on the Piscataqua, including the ship America. He did not own the house; he was a tenant of the widow Purcell during those assignments.
The house passed through later owners and uses, and in 1920 the Portsmouth Historical Society acquired it and opened it as a museum. The Society furnishes the rooms with period collections and interprets both the Purcell family's life and Jones's wartime stays.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972. It opens seasonally for guided tours from late spring through October and remains one of the anchor sites of Portsmouth's preserved colonial waterfront district.
Sources
The John Paul Jones House carries one of Portsmouth's better-known haunting reputations, repeated in local press and in regional ghost-lore writing. The signature account is an attic apparition: visitors over the years have described someone in 19th-century finery stepping out of the attic, walking into a room, and vanishing.
The Soul Seekers Paranormal Society catalogued a broader set of reports at the museum, including figures seen in the windows, lights turning on and off, objects moving or being thrown, disembodied voices, cold spots, and the smell of pipe tobacco where no one is smoking. The Manchester Union Leader's survey of New Hampshire haunted places lists the house among the state's better-documented sites for these accounts.
The author and investigator Thomas D'Agostino, in 'Haunted New Hampshire,' records a paranormal group reporting EVP and flashlight-style responses while attempting to communicate with a presence they associated with John Paul Jones's former rented room. The Portsmouth Historical Society presents the building first as a history museum, and these stories circulate alongside its documented colonial record rather than as the museum's official narrative.
Notable Entities
A docent-led tour of the 1758 Georgian house, furnished by the Portsmouth Historical Society with collections covering the home, the Purcell family who built it, and John Paul Jones's two stays as a boarder during the Revolution. The tour includes the period rooms and discussion of the house's history.
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