Blog Roundup #10 | Abby Epplett, Historian
Abigail Epplett
Marketing Operations Specialist @ Waters | Accessibility Advocate | Available for Freelance Projects
The blog roundup for this week focuses on a trip I took to the Greater Portsmouth, NH area (including Exeter, NH and York, ME) back in September 2022. Spread across seventeen blog post, the trip covered 12,000 years of southern New Hampshire and Maine maritime history.
Strawbery Banke is an amazing living history museum named after the original village founded in modern day Portsmouth, NH by English colonists in 1623. Its ten-acre property was a community called Puddle Dock until the 1950s. Every house is its own time capsule, telling the story of Portsmouth from the arrival of the Wabanaki around 12,000 years ago, English colonialism in the 17th century, the early United States in the 18th?century, the changes of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th?century, the World Wars of the 20th?century, and climate change today.
I walked through nearby Exeter listening to a?Historical Walking Tour on izi.TRAVEL, a website and app for self-guided audio tours. This tour is vetted by the?Exeter Historical Society and was recorded by local boy scouts and their family members. Additionally, a written transcript beneath the audio player allows Deaf and hearing impaired visitors, or anyone walking through noisy downtown Exeter, to enjoy the tour. Stops can be visited in any orders.
A charming museum with knowledgeable guides, a fun gift shop, and great branding, the American Independence Museum is a great stop for families who have walked the?Freedom?Trail through? Boston?NHP?in Boston, Massachusetts; seen the Liberty?Bell at? Independence Hall?NHP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; or toured? Colonial?Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The rightfully paranoid Gilman family built the structure as a garrison, a fort that served as a living space and a tavern. The year of construction, 1709, is known thank to a test by the?Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory?in 2005. The owners of the house were equally eccentric and tragic, including an architect turned scuba gear inventor, a pair of feminist sisters dedicated to promoting the pseudohistory of the house, and a philandering restorationist. Disclaimer: This article refers to a death by suicide.
With construction beginning in 1784, right before the Federalist Era of the United States, the exterior design of this oceanside mansion is mostly?Georgian, an 18th century English architectural style, while the interior was originally?Rococo, an 18th century French architectural style. The owner of the house, Portsmouth native?John Langdon, was born to a wealthy and politically active Cornish-American family in 1741. His expansive career included four terms as governor of New Hampshire.
Similar in scope to the Black Heritage Trail of Boston, MA, the self-guided audio tour is available through the? Geotourist website and app, while a map of the tour can be?printed at home or picked up at the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center. Stops on this tour include historic house museums, churches, private residences, and places where the original structure no longer exists.
John Paul Jones was briefly a captain in the American Revolutionary War. His stay at?the house that bears his name was equally brief, as he was said to have rented a room in 1781, providing much needed income for the widow of another sea captain, Gregory Purcell, for whom the house was built in 1758. Located down the street from John Paul Jones House, the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center is a welcome center, giftshop, and gallery space. I visited on the first Friday of the month to take advantage of the Art 'Round Town event, where galleries in Portsmouth stay open late.
This society owns and maintains several buildings and historic properties, including their Museum Center, Jefferds Tavern, York Corner Schoolhouse, the Old Gaol, and Emerson-Wilcox House. Admissions and small gift shop are on first floor of the Museum Center, while paintings, furniture, and other artifacts in Remick Gallery on the second floor.
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The house was owned by the Sayward-Wheeler family throughout its time as a private residence, from 1719 to 1977, and went through few updates. The tour focuses on the lives of key family members, along with enslaved people who lived and worked in the house.
I stopped in a few places throughout York, Maine, including a historical marker about the Raid on York, the little Wiggly Bridge, the award-winning Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, and a Steedman Woods Nature Preserve. All stops are free and open to the public.
Like Sayward-Wheeler House, a single family lived in the house throughout its time as a residence. James & Jane Hill Rundlet?built this Federal style mansion to house their large family. James made his fortune as a merchant and a textile mill owner during the early Industrial Revolution, and he dabbled in architecture. As a lover of technology, the cooking stoves and heated floors installed in the house were at the forefront of innovation at the time. James had so much money and so many friends that his descendents lived off his wealth and reputation for as long as they owned the house.
Wealthy colonial merchant and ship captain?John Moffat and his wife?Katharine Cutt Moffatt?constructed the house as a wedding gift for his newlywed only son and daughter-in-law,?Samuel & Sarah Catherine Tufton Moffat, between 1760 and 1763. John spared no expense on this lavish house, which went unappreciated by his son, who soon abandoned his family. Family drama ensued as a pair of secretly married cousins, William Whipple and Katharine Moffat, stepped in to care for the house and children.
The house was owned by several families, including the Wentworth and Gardner families, before being restored by historian Wallace Nutting and turned into a museum. This non-profit museum managed by the Wentworth-Gardner Historic House Association recently deaccessioned and renovated the nearby Tobias Lear House, now available to?rent for $675 per night at time of publication.
Prescott Park was created by the Prescott sisters, Mary and Josie, in the 1930s. Perched on a little pier jutting into Portsmouth Harbor, Sheafe Warehouse is a restored remnant from the “Age of Sailing” in maritime New England. Originally built in 1923 after WWI, demolitioned in 2012, and rebuilt in 2013, Memorial Bridge commemorates veterans from the Great War along with demonstrating excellence in bridge construction.
Portsmouth Memorial Park, dedicated in November 2013, contains a unique granite memorial honoring American veterans. With the cemetery established back in 1671 thanks to?Captain John Pickering II, the headstones in the Point of Graves Burial Ground date back to the late 17th century when the area was still called Strawbery Banke. At the entrance to Prescott Park stands the Liberty Pole decorated with the bright blue, red, and gold Liberty Shield, symbols of the American Revolution. The gundalow is a small but majestic replica of barges that sailed along the Piscasqua River and through Portsmouth Harbor from the late 17th century to the early 20th century.
On the first Friday of the month during tourist season, art galleries throughout the city stay open until 8:00 p.m. to host?Art ’Round Town.?The most striking public artworks I found in Portsmouth was a stylized portrait of?Ruth Blay, the last woman executed by hanging in the state of New Hampshire. Historic buildings include Portsmouth Book & Bar (formerly the Portsmouth Custom House & Post Office), Tobias Langdon House, William Tredick House, James Thomas Fields House, and North Church of Portsmouth, also called?Market Square Church.
Located at the corner of Pleasant Street and Livermore Street,?Haven Park is named for the Haven family, whose family home was demolished in 1898 to create the park. In the center of the park is a state of Civil War officer and Portsmouth native General Fitz John Porter riding a horse. Fire Station 1, also known as Central Station, is the oldest of three fire stations in Portsmouth. The most recent change to this area is the Vigilance memorial, dedicated in 2009. The Portsmouth Athenaeum was founded as a subscription library in 1817. Middle Street Baptist Church was first formed in 1826. Its current white Federalist style building was constructed down the street in 1799 and originally called the John Peirce Mansion.