Captain John Salter House

The Captain John Salter House was located on the west side of Washington Street, near the southwest corner of Washington and Court Streets.

John Salter was born on November 4, 1740, the son of Richard Salter and Elizabeth Odiorne Salter. John was a sea captain who served during the Revolutionary War. He purchased this lot in 1770. The previous owner, John Beck, had started to build a house here, and John Salter completed it that year. During his lifetime, he had three wives: Dorothy Bickford, Elizabeth Ayers, and Elizabeth Tuesdall. He and his second wife, Elizabeth Ayers, had nine children, all born in Portsmouth.

Captain John Salter died in 1814, and his descendants continued to live here until at least 1902, when the old photograph below appeared in C. S. Gurney's book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque.

The Salter House was opposite the Hutchings House on Washington Street, and the next south of the Cushman House. Captain John Salter built the Cushman House in 1791, and the home later belonged to his daughter, Maria Jane Salter and her husband, Samuel Cushman.

Today, the lot appears to be a private garden surrounded by chain-link fences and barbed wire.
 

Liberty Pole and Liberty Bridge

The Liberty Pole is located on the southern end of Prescott Park, slightly north of the Point of Graves Burial Ground and just east of Marcy Street.

For years, the section of Marcy Street from the Liberty Pole to Pleasant Street was named Water Street. A cove, or river inlet, used to flow west from the Piscataqua River, just north of the Liberty Pole, through the field in the middle of Strawbery Banke, to Pleasant Street. During high tides, it sometimes flowed all the way to the South Mill Pond through the Governor Langford property. It was originally called the Dock, but when it was later narrowed and partially filled in, became known as Puddle Dock.


A private bridge was built over the cove in 1731. According to Nathaniel Adams’ 1825 book about the city's earliest years, Annals of Portsmouth, “This bridge had a hoist or draw in it for vessels to pass through, and was called Swing-bridge."

Another bridge without a draw, called the Canoe Bridge because it could only accomodate small vessels, spanned the cove on Washington Street.

On January 9, 1766, nine years before the beginning of the American War of Independence, it  was renamed the Liberty Bridge when Portsmouth’s rebellious Sons of Liberty erected a flagpole here in opposition to the Stamp Act. On the pole they raised a flag with the motto, “Liberty, Property, and No Stamp”. This was the first flag protesting the Stamp Act in the American Colonies. On the same day, the Sons of Liberty “compelled” the Stamp Master, George Meserve, to surrender his commission, which had just recently arrived, although he had given up the office the previous year.

(See Haymarket Square for more information)

On May 22, 1766, the town of Portsmouth celebrated repeal of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament. They built a battery of twenty-one cannons near Liberty Bridge and dedicated it to the King. Thirteen of these guns were fired on April 28, 1783, to celebrate the end of the Revolutionary War.

To honor the original pole, Portsmouth erected a new flagpole on the Fourth of July,1824 and again on the Fourth of July, 1899. The city filled in the Puddle Dock cove in 1899 and dismantled the Liberty Bridge.
 

The vintage photographs above appeared in Portsmouth resident C. S. Gurney's 1902 book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque. This view is of Marcy Street looking north towards Prescott Park, with the intersections of Hancock Street on the left and Mechanic Street on the right.

The white building (right) on the southeast corner of Mechanic and Marcy Streets in both photographs is the same. I am still researching whether or not the green building on the left in my photograph is the same – although moved back from the street and enlarged – as the one in the left foreground of the old photo.

George B. French Company

The George B. French Company was located at 41 Market Street, on the northeast corner of Market Street and Commercial Way.

George B. French lived from 1828-1900. He opened a dry goods and carpet house at this location around 1888. The store continued in operation long after his death, at least into the 1960s, although it later moved to a Market Square location.

An 1887 book called, Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of New Hampshire, wrote, “Mr. French has been engaged in the dry goods trade in this city for the past thirty years and by force of energy, enterprise, and close attention to the popular want, has reached a preeminence in the trade of which he has just reason to be proud. He occupies the largest and finest salesroom in this line in the city, together with two floors above and a basement, for the exhibition and storage of the stock that is constantly carried.”

The old photograph below, from Caleb S. Gurney's book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque, shows what the store looked like in 1902, when it was owned by George E. French, who was probably George B. French's son.

The 1905 Portsmouth Directory included the store under the following categories: Carpets; Crockery, China, and Glassware; Dry Goods; Fancy Goods; Hosiery and Gloves; and Upholstery and Goods.

 

The retail space has been occupied by the Kennedy Gallery for many years.

 

This building is very distinctive and a Market Street landmark, yet I spent a frustrating week researching this location and found very little information.

 

For example, I cannot determine the significance of two dates near the roof: 1780 and 1880. The building could not have been constructed in 1780, because every structure on Market Street was destroyed by the Great Parade Fire of 1802. The building at this location may also have burned down in the Market Street Fire of 1845. I suspect the 1880 refers to either the date when the building was erected or when it was significantly redesigned.

 

If anyone has more information about 41 Market Street, I would appreciate a comment on this page, or drop me a line at rontcampbell@yahoo.com.

Immaculate Conception Church

The Immaculate Conception Church is on the southwest corner of Summer and Chatham Streets.

The first Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire was built at Claremont in 1823. Portsmouth’s first Roman Catholic mass was held in 1836, over the confectionary shop of Dominick Peduzzi, an immigrant from Italy, The building, on the northwest corner of Congress and High Streets, was razed in 1890 and replaced by the current Fay Block.

An old circus field once occupied the block where the Catholic Church and Parochial School are located today, bordered by Summer, Chatham, Austin, and Winter Streets. The 1680 will of John Cutt referred to the space as the “windmill field” because of the old mill that stood here.

The first Catholic Church in Portsmouth, St. Mary’s, opened on this site in 1852. At the time, there were about three hundred parishioners. Like so many wooden buildings in this city, the church burned down in November 1871.

The cornerstone for a new, brick church was laid the following year. The first Immaculate Conception Church opened in 1873 after a cost of $30,000.

The large Parochial School on the northeast corner of Austin and Winter Streets (right) was added in 1887. 

By 1902, when the photograph below appeared in C. S. Gurney’s book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque, the congregation had grown to approximately two thousand members.

 
The second church at this location was razed in 1932 and replaced by the second Immaculate Conception Church in 1933. This is the church that stands there today. The stained glass windows from the former church were saved and included in the new edifice.


I promise to return in the fall and capture some better photographs of this beautiful building!

Peirce Block – Green’s Drugstore

The Peirce Block is in Market Square, on the northeast corner of High Street and Market Square, opposite the North Church.

Benjamin Green was born in Portsmouth in 1867, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. They most likely worshipped at Temple Israel on State Street. After graduating from Portsmouth High School in 1882, he worked as a clerk at Joseph Haven Thacher's apothecary in the Haven Block.

In 1888, he purchased the drugstore from J. H. Thacher, married Josephine Bodge of Greenland three years later, and moved his business to the corner store of the Peirce Block in 1898. When Benjamin Green's new apothecary opened,  the Portsmouth Herald wrote, "one of the most elegantly equipped drug stores east of Boston."

SeacoastNH.com has two photographs of Green's Drugstore in 1895. If their date is correct, these views would be the interior of the store in the Haven Block rather than the Peirce Block; however, no matter the store, it gives us a glimpse of what an early 1900s drugstore looked like.

Benjamin Green, a proprietor of the Portsmouth Athenaeum from 1922-1949, retired in 1939 and sold the business to his pharmacist, Frank M. McMahon. The apothecary continued with the name Green's Drugstore and remained on this corner of the Peirce Block from 1898 until 1965.

The vintage photographs are from C. S. Gurney’s 1902 book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque.

In the 1902 photograph of the Peirce Block below, Benjamin Green Apothecary is the shop on the left, A. P. Wendell & Co. Hardware store is shown in the center, and Foye's Store is on the right. Green's Drugstore is now occupied by a Starbucks coffee shop.

The Peirce Block is named for the family of Joshua Peirce, who moved to Portsmouth from New Jersey around the year 1700. After purchasing the land on this corner, he built a large house here and ran a store on the ground floor. During his life as a merchant and ship owner, he married Elizabeth Hall of Greenland, and they had nine children. Peirce became a member of the King’s Council, and also served as town clerk, parish clerk, a selectman, and recorder of deeds for the province of New Hampshire. He died in 1743.

The Peirce family lived on this corner, in the home built by Joshua Peirce, for nearly a century. In 1799, his grandson, John Peirce, built the Peirce Mansion in Haymarket Square, and the Peirce clan moved to their new home on Court Street. Their former residence in Market Square burned to the ground during the Great Parade Fire of 1802.

Two years later, in 1804, the family constructed the brick block known as the Peirce Block that still stands today.

Peirce Block – Wendell Hardware

The Peirce Block is in Market Square, on the northeast corner of High Street and Market Square.

The Wendell Hardware Store in Market Square was opened in 1834 by two Wendell brothers, Abraham and Daniel. Abraham’s son, Andrew Peterson Wendell, who was born in Portsmouth in 1844,  graduated Portsmouth High School in 1859 and then began working in his father and uncle’s hardware store fulltime. After Daniel left the business, he became partners with his father and his younger brother, Henry Wendell, in 1864.

Andrew Wendell married Ruth Ann Osgood in 1865 or 1867, and they had four children. Sadly, little Nellie only lived for about three weeks in 1878. A scrupulous man, Wendell kept annual diaries in which he recorded each day’s weather, often including the temperature and amount of snowfall. Like his father, who retired in 1874 and died in 1882, A. P. Wendell served as an Alderman of Portsmouth.

Upon his father's death, Andrew Wendell became the proprietor of the hardware store, renamed the A. P. Wendell & Co. Hardware and Paints Store. The vintage photographs are from C. S. Gurney’s 1902 book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque.

In the 1887 Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of New Hampshire, A. P. Wendell & Co. was listed as “Dealers in Hardware and Cutlery, Paints, Oils and Varnishes, Oars, Rowlocks, and Boat Fittings; Guns and Ammunition”.

In the 1905 Portsmouth Directory, A P Wendell Hardware was still in business and listed under the following categories: Agricultural Implements, Artists’ Materials, Bicycles, Cutlery, Fishing Tackle, Hardware, Paints Oils and Glass, Powder and Shot, Pumps, Sporting Goods, and Weather Strips.

Andrew P. Wendell died in 1926.

In the 1902 photograph below, the A. P. Wendell & Co. Hardware store is shown in the center of the Peirce Block in Market Square. The store to the right is Foye's Store, and the one to the left is Green's Apothecary. The retail space where A. P. Wendell once sold hardware is now occupied by Warner's Card & Gift Shop. 

The Peirce Block is named for the family of Joshua Peirce, who moved to Portsmouth from New Jersey around the year 1700. After purchasing the land on this corner, he built a large house here and ran a store on the ground floor. During his life as a merchant and ship owner, he married Elizabeth Hall of Greenland, and they had nine children. Peirce became a member of the King’s Council, and also served as town clerk, parish clerk, a selectman, and recorder of deeds for the province of New Hampshire. He died in 1743.

The Peirce family lived on this corner, in the home built by Joshua Peirce, for nearly a century. In 1799, his grandson, John Peirce, built the Peirce Mansion in Haymarket Square, and the Peirce clan moved to their new home on Court Street. Their former residence in Market Square burned to the ground during the Great Parade Fire of 1802.

Two years later, in 1804, the family constructed the brick block known as the Peirce Block that still stands today.

Peirce Block – Foye's Store

The Peirce Block is in Market Square, on the northeast corner of High Street and Market Square.

Joshua Peirce moved to Portsmouth from New Jersey around the year 1700. After purchasing the land on this corner, he built a large house here and ran a store on the ground floor. During his life as a merchant and ship owner, he married Elizabeth Hall of Greenland, and they had nine children. Peirce became a member of the King’s Council, and also served as town clerk, parish clerk, a selectman, and recorder of deeds for the province of New Hampshire. He died in 1743.

Peirce Mansion

The Peirce family lived on this corner, in the home built by Joshua Peirce, for nearly a century. In 1799, his grandson, John Peirce, built the Peirce Mansion in Haymarket Square, and the Peirce clan moved to their new home on Court Street. Their former residence in Market Square burned to the ground during the Great Parade Fire of 1802.


Two years later, in 1804, the family constructed the brick block known as the Peirce Block that still stands today.

Morris Cotton Foye, a two-term New Hampshire legislator, opened his first Portsmouth shop on Market Street in 1878. His store, Foye's Gift Center, relocated to the Peirce Block in the early 1900s. As shown in the vintage photograph above from C. S. Gurney's 1902 book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque, the Morris C. Foye shop occupied the easternmost retail space of the Peirce Block. By that time, the store was run by his grandson, Morris C. Foye II. 

During the 1940s, the store expanded east to the ground floor of the Portsmouth Athenaeum, where Ireland on the Square is located today, and operated as a department store until 1967, when it was reconfigured to be a gift shop. The Portsmouth Athenaeum's Website has several exterior and interior views of Foye's Department Store.

Unfortunately, the windows of the Peirce Block have been reconfigured to match the Portsmouth Athenaeum. Back in 1902, there were iron lintels over the windows, much like the ones in the Exchange Block on Pleasant Street.

Today, the retail space is occupied by Kaya Jewelers.

Henry Sherburne, 2nd, House

The home of Henry Sherburne, 2nd, is located on The Hill at 62 Deer Street. It once stood on the north side of Deer Street, opposite the intersection of Deer and High Streets.

Henry Sherburne, 2nd, a merchant and judge, built this home around 1725. He served as a member of the Provincial Council during Portsmouth’s colonial days, as did his father, Henry Sherburne, and his son-in-law, Daniel Warner of the Buckminster House. His mother, Dorothy Wentworth Sherburne, was a sister of the Royal Lt.-Governor, John Wentworth. He and his wife, Sarah Warner, married in 1740 and had nine children. Henry Sherburne, 2nd died in 1767 at the age of fifty-seven years.

The vintage photograph below was published in C. S. Gurney's 1902 book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque.

The three photographs show the original location of the mansion today, how it appeared in 1902 beside the Jenness house and how it looks today at its present location on The Hill.

I originally reported that this beautiful home was razed during the destruction of Portsmouth’s north end during the 1960s. That's obviously wrong! Thank you to the anonymous person who left a comment pointing out my error. The Henry Sherburne, 2nd house was saved and moved up the street and across to the south side, where it still stands today.