Cabot Street School

The Cabot Street School is located at 175 Cabot Street, on the northeast corner of Cabot and State Streets.

The Cabot Street School building was constructed in 1860, on the site where formerly stood a small, two-story brick schoolhouse. Construction was supervised by Benjamin Franklin Webster, a successful Portsmouth building contractor and ships joiner.

The school is unusual for Portsmouth in that it is a wooden building that replaced one built of bricks! 


After thirty years of service as a grammar school, Portsmouth closed the Cabot Street School in 1890; however, it was reopened in 1895 to accommodate the growing number of students. The last wooden schoolhouse in Portsmouth was permanently closed in 1931, when the building became too expensive to maintain. All of its students were moved to the Whipple School, and the old Cabot Street School was sold in 1933 for $1,000.

The vintage photograph above is from C. S. Gurney's 1902 book, Portsmouth . . . Historic and Picturesque. The building now serves as private condo units.