Public | City Of Portsmouth Tour | Historic Sites & Arts |2-2.5hr

Highlights of the Hidden Neighborhoods of Portsmouth City View Bike Tour:

Former North End / Italian "Little Italy"
The Hill 
South End and Prescott Park
Strawbery Banke
Wentworth Coolidge Mansion
Frank Jones Brewery - West End
Creek Neighborhood - Christian Shore

There are over a dozen colorful wooden houses are squeezed up against the towering Marriot and the Hilton Hotels. The concept, in the early 1970s, was that dilapidated buildings bred ragged people. After World War II, most cities demolish thousands of "blighted" urban areas across the nation. Most were replaced by high-rise apartments, shopping malls, and hotels. In Portsmouth, we lost much of historic Vaughan Street and replaced it with a parking garage and open lots. We will pass by a collection of preserved historic homes saved by urban renewal and move into this area for preservation.

Strawbery Banke Museum began as a “save our history” effort by the citizens of Portsmouth. In the late 1950s, Puddle Dock, an area of dilapidated homes near the Piscataqua River was targeted for urban renewal. All the “substandard” homes in Puddle Dock — some of which dated back to the 1600s — were to torn down and replaced with modern buildings. That was until city librarian Dorothy Vaughn addressed the Portsmouth Rotary Club one day in 1957.

That day Vaughn “laid it on the line” for the Rotary Club, telling them that every time one of the old houses was torn or an antique piece of Portsmouth furniture shipped out of town, the city was losing its past. The Rotary Club was galvanized into action, and while Puddle Dock did undergo urban renewal, much of it has been saved as a historic museum.

Explore the beautiful Little HARBOR

Franklin Jones was born in Barrington, New Hampshire in 1832. He was the fifth of six boys as well as the fifth of seven children in his family. He left home at 16 and moved to Portsmouth and worked as an apprentice in his older brother Hiram's stove store. Within 3 years he owned an interest in the store and in 1854 he took it over completely. Throughout his life Jones would be active in several businesses at once, a pattern he developed early and in these early years, he was also a tin peddler and a rag picker. In 1858 he became partners with John Swindell, an Englishman who had recently moved to Portsmouth to start a brewery producing ale.

The Creek (pronounced “Crick”) was about 90% Irish Catholic and
there are still many Creek natives who live in the neighborhood. The North End and Christian Shore surrounding the North Mill Pond, are
linked to the downtown by Maplewood Avenue. While
the southern portion has been intruded by urban renewal,
containing several major historic urban archaeological sites,
the rest is a 2-story residential area below the Route 1 ByPass which includes the oldest house in New Hampshire and
a cluster of Federal and Victorian buildings similar to the
South End. Added to the District in 2010, the West End is
a 19th-century Frank Jones Brewery and Button Factory which also encompasses the Islington Street neighborhood and includes various residential and commercial architectural styles.

Prescott Park is a ten-plus acre waterfront park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. The land was purchased in the 1930s by two sisters, Josie and Sarah Prescott. The sisters, public school teachers, had used an inheritance to systematically purchase and clear properties along the Piscataqua River.

Visit the new Endeavor Sculpture dedicated for the Portsmouth 400th Anniversary.

Ship building
Paper mill