Strawbery Banke helps us understanding changing life in urban America by looking at how life in one neighborhood changed from the 1690s to the 1950s. Drisco House introduces this narrative. A house built in 1692 was demolished around 1790 to make way for the subsequent construction of this house in 1795. This new house is now restored and furnished to show the domestic settings of two very different generations of occupancy; the right half shows the first families to live here in the 1790s, the left half shows the last families to live here in the 1950s.

The house was built when Portsmouth's economy was shifting from post-Revolutionary depression to renewed prosperity. New houses replaced old ones, and small urban lots were further subdivided by a population which valued proximity to the waterfront. New long piers on the river served international trade as it was extended to ever more remote ports.

John and Catherine Shapley were the first to live in this house, along with a household of at least three daughters and several unidentified others, probably boarders or hired hands. John was primarily a mariner who used his modest ship for commercial fishing and carrying goods in the coastal trade. The family also kept a shop in their house. Like many Americans in a cash-short economy their family economy functioned on credit, making and receiving payments with goods recorded at cash value. Credit had its perils; Shapley was frequently in court suing or being sued for unpaid debts. During John's absences his illiterate wife Catherine and their three teen-aged daughters probably kept the shop.
Behind the shop a modest wall-papered sitting room was the setting for daily noon dinner and sedentary afternoon and evening chores like sewing and book keeping. Across the hall a best parlor and kitchen completed the downstairs, while four bedrooms plus attic provided ample living space.

After only five years Shapely sold this house in 1800 to another merchant and mariner, James Drisco. Drisco owned a wharf with ware houses and shops on it across Marcy Street from this house. He also operated a shop on the west side of Horse Lane, and by the time of his death in 1812 owned three other dwellings. He appears to have discontinued Shapleys old shop. It appears his widow and son Joshua lived on here. Joshua ran a packet boat on the Piscataqua River, connecting the coastal and international trades to the rural trade via upriver ports. He eventually became captain of ocean-going vessels. After his death in the 1850s the house was sold out of the Drisco family.

The neighborhood's fortunes were undergoing change. From the War of 1812 Portsmouth's international trade dropped sharply. Economic activity was shifting from waterfront to Market Square, the railroad, steam factories, West End, and suburbs. By the early 20th century the old waterfront district had a new character. Houses were converted to multi-family dwellings. Puddle Dock was filled. Small industries like steam laundries and scrap-metal recycling were established; bars, prostitution and violent crime characterized the waterfront's nightlife. The neighborhood was an affordable haven for poor immigrants. Police vigilance and the privately-funded creation of a water front park in the 1930s improved the neighborhood's fortune, but this was limited by consecutive developments: the Great Depression, World War II rationing, a localized post-war depression, and the loss of young veterans to new automobile suburbs.

The left half of Drisco House is restored to depict a typical neighborhood blue-collar family's apartment such as occupied this duplex house and most of those around it in the post World War II years. The neighborhood was tight-knit; picnics and outings were popular, as was the Puddle Dockers baseball team. Unlike the self-employed of the 1790s, most neighbors worked at jobs in the Navy Yard or in small industries. World and community connections were altered by new modes of communication: telephone, daily papers, radio and the newly-invented television.

Residents were astounded in the mid 1950s when city officials declared their neighborhood a slum and slated it for urban renewal. Preparatory to bulldozing, the city purchased these ten acres of houses by eminent domain, and its community of residents was embittered as neighbors scattered to new homes, a story repeated in countless American cities. In a rare local diversion from the usual pattern, upper and middle-class citizens determined to preserve the physical evidence of history founded Strawbery Banke, Inc. in 1958, and in 1964 purchased the redevelopment parcel from the city. About thirty buildings were saved, while nearly forty were demolished.

The architecture of the Drisco House reflects the taste of middle-class traders of the 1790s. The exterior and interiors use the plainest vernacular forms and details available from local housewrights, who rendered opulent woodwork for wealthier Portsmouth families. Though successful, the Shapleys and Driscos seem to have felt no need to impress their neighbors; they were content with bright paint and a little wallpaper to cheer their interiors. Alterations to a duplex included installation of big window panes, two front doors, two vestibules, an additional stair (since removed), and installation of utilities, appliances and kerosene heat in place of open hearths, candles and bake ovens.