Strawbery Banke

By -
A light blue, black, and white striped header image with the words 'Strawbery Banke'

In early September, I took a three-day trip to the Greater Portsmouth, New Hampshire area. On my first stop, I visited Strawbery Banke, an amazing living history museum in Portsmouth. The organization is named after the original village founded in New Hampshire by English colonists in 1623, and its ten-acre property was a community called Puddle Dock until the 1950s.

A red sign reading STRAWBERY BANKE MUSEUM with white cutouts of four federal-style houses above the text. A white, three-story building is in the background. Three red signs. The large sign on the left reads STRAWBERY BANKE MUSEUM MUSEUM TICKETS. A smaller sign attached to the large sign reads STRAWBERY BANKE MUSEUM TICKETS with an arrow pointing to the left. The right sign gives a land acknowledgement for the Abenaki people. All three sign has a logo of three white cutout buildings and a gundalow boat A brown wooden two-story building. A red brick path leads to the front door. My face, wearing my sunglasses and my green National Park Service hat, in front of the large left sign from a previous image. Victorian garden with a fountain and the Goodwin Mansion in the back The back of the Goodwin Mansion with wooden scaffolding. A greenhouse was in front of the mansion. A brick path with a wooden bench leads towards the house. A white and black wooden pergola in front of Goodwin Mansion at Strawbery Banke Museum A pair of federal-style houses on a green lawn with trees interspersing the lawn

In some ways, Strawbery Banke is similar to other living history museums that I have visited, like Plimoth Patuxet Museums (formerly Plimoth Plantation), Colonial Williamsburg, and Old Sturbridge Village. All of these museums have a collection of historic houses, along with some reproductions, with a mix of costumed interpreters and 21st century guides.

A parlor with early 19th century wallpaper, a fireplace, the portrait of former New Hampshire governor Ichabod Goodwin, and a table covered by a red, patterned tablecloth. Parlor with a fireplace, a green couch, a matching set of green chairs, a tall clock, 19th century wallpaper, and a portrait of Sarah Parker Rice Goodwin. An alcove with several shelves, all filled with delft porcelain. A bedroom with pink walls, a fireplace, and a canopy bed. A sign describing the bedchamber of Ichabod Goodwin. A sign describing the bedchamber of The Governor's Wife A bedroom with several paintings hung on the whitewashed walls, a fireplace, furniture, and a bed. Portrait of Mary Gosse Powell, a young white woman with her brown hair in a bun wearing a black dress and a frilly white collar

However, Strawbery Banke has a major difference in approach. Most living history museums focus on a specific decade — 1630s in Plimoth, 1770s in Williamsburg, 1830s in OSV — and base characters, scripts, and programming around a single time period. But at Strawbery Banke, 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. This comprehensive approach allows visitors to explore over forty buildings without the self-guided tour becoming repetitive.

Yeaton House and Winn House, a pair of federal-style yellow-painted wooden buildings viewed at a three-quarters angle Yeaton-Walsh House, a two-story 19th century building with yellow paint, green and red trim, and a red door. Dinsmore Shop, a rough wooden coopering shop with chopped wood and barrels outside. Detail of the wooden barrels in from of Dinsmore Shop A wooden ship model, about two feet (0.7 meters) high and equally long, protected by a glass case and set on a pedestal at about waist height. A door with a large glass window reading Fernald & Petigrew in golden lettering. On the other side of the door is a wooden desk set, and a framed painting of a ship hung above the desk. A fireplace with an automatic spit turner run by weights and a pulley. The exposed beams and floorboards of Sherburne House, a building in the midst of restoration. A trio of ballisters in different designs, demonstrating a style distinct to Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Strawbery Banke hosts an astonishing range of furnished houses and exhibits. The museum featured homes of wealthy families, like Goodwin Mansion and Chase House. A unique building was the home the Shapiro family, Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived in 1908. A partially reconstructed wigwam is part of the People of the Dawnland exhibit, which describes the culture and history of Wabanaki people.

A metal framed bed with a folded tallit lay on the white bedcovers. Exterior of the yellow-painted, two-story, federal-style Chase House shrouded by deciduous trees. Parlor with painted gray floors, yellow geometric wallpaper, and a whitewashed fireplace. Queen Atlantic brand metal stove with six burners in a kitchen with dark blue-green paint Classic Singer sewing machine Decorative metal lamp on a white wooden side table beside a Yiddish newspaper Aldritch House & Garden, a whitewashed two-story federal-style building behind raised bed gardens and red brick pathways. A yellow picket fence and intricate lattice archway leading to a yellow painted three-story wooden house with a pair of tall chimneys. A yellow painted two-story wooden federal-style house with an American flag on the corner of the house Traditional Wabanaki wigwam structure. Sign explaining archeological discoveries at Strawbery Banke related to the wigwam and the People of the Dawnland exhibit Fire bucket hanging near the stair case with the the writing J. Jones 1780 No. 1 and the image of fire in the center

A fun stop, especially for older visitors, is the Marden-Abbott General Store & House. This World War II era general store is filled with vintage goods, including Campbell’s soup, a Coca-Cola freezer, and a Texaco oil tank that reminded me of my time in southeast Texas. A costumed interpreter plays the role of Bertha Abbott, the store owner. My favorite part of the store was a poster featuring a young shopkeeper, who pledges to sell goods at “top legal prices”.

Interior of a 1940s American general store with a Texaco oil tank in the back corner Seven shelves filled with vintage canned goods, including Campbell's soup Vintage canned goods and a Coca-Cola freezer in a general store 1940s stove in a dining room with floral wallpaper Patriotic 1940s poster of a young white man with a white dress shirt and red bow tie holding up his right hand and pledging to sell goods at legal prices. The exterior of the general store, with signage under the windows and a bumpout above the door.

Throughout the grounds are gardens planted with techniques from different historical eras. Many of my flower pictures come from the beautiful Goodwin Garden, a Victorian era landscape and greenhouse which has won a Preservation Award from the New England chapter of Victorian Society in America in 2004. Another fun feature were the heritage breed chickens and Victory Gardens celebrating American ingenuity during the World Wars.

Orange flower with a bumble bee in the center. An orange heritage chicken behind a wire fence A round pink flower. Black Eyed Susan, a yellow flower with a brown center. Dark orange flower with large brown center, like a small sunflower White flower with five connecting petals Pink round flower with a pink and yellow center A fallen orange and yellow leaf on a dirt path An informational sign with the title 'Welcome to the Victorian Children's Garden' The entrance to the Goodwin Greenhouse with red brick lower walls, glass upper walls and ceiling, and a whitewashed door with a large glass window.

Among many excellent choice of Strawbery Banke was the decisions to have ongoing restorations viewable by the public, such as Goodwin Mansion, Walsh House, and Sherburne House. The museum leaves Jackson House unrestored as an opportunity to share the lives of the people who lived at Puddle Duck. The technology and analog demonstrations in the exhibits are incredible, particularly in the Water Has a Memory exhibit. A touch screen kiosk displays select objects from the collections linked to a timeline of river usage. Also in the exhibit is the interactive wall “Think Blue! What can YOU do?”, which encourages visitors to lower their carbon footprint through everyday actions.

A vertical, 16:9 dimension touchscreen displaying a broken delft plate. Across the bottom are buttons for five time periods. The image of an open drawer with artifacts inside is displayed below the plate. The touchscreen displaying a pristine river, a person in a canoe, and text describing the arrival of English colonists in Portsmouth during the 1600s. An image of a wineglass with a long, thing neck. Below is text describing its origin. Attached to the wall is a container with six small sections of string in different colors defining geographic regions. In the lower left is the container with six sections of string. In the center is an image of a standard American suburban house under the header Think Blue! What can YOU do? String is wrapped around hooks near text describing ways to improve a carbon footprint. A dark blue wall with the logo of a wave and the words Water Has a Memory. Beneath the logo is a quote about water from Yankee Magazine. The side of a blue wooden building with an overhang and an open door. This is the entrance to Water Has a Memory exhibit at Strawbery Banke Museum

The North and South Cotton Tenant Houses provide more interactive opportunities. The North house focuses on the use of plants throughout human history in Portsmouth. A touch screen highlights farming practices, medical usage, and economics over four time periods. Squeeze-and-sniff bottles allow visitors to smell six different plants grown in the nearby Ethnobotanical Garden. The South house focuses on textiles from Colonial Times to the Industrial Revolution. The house is full of small looms that visitors can try.

A touchscreen with information about plant usage and farming techniques throughout the history of Portsmouth. This screen describes science in the Colonial Period. A light blue flap describing a plant. Below the flap is a scent bottle, allowing visitors to smell the plant described. A full row of flaps describing plants with scent bottles underneath

Strawbery Banke Museum was an outstanding experience as an historian. Its depth and breadth of knowledge, combine with the thought put into the restorations, exhibits, and interactives, was phenomenal. While not all buildings can be accessed for those with low mobility, as is common for historic house tours, the museum’s emphasis on inclusivity, accessibility, and family-oriented outlook makes it well worth the visit for anyone going to the Greater Portsmouth area.

Wallpaper with a light blue background and orange details, such as a pair of birds hovering over a nest, garlands, and what might be an old-fashioned bird feeder. A painting of a sailing boat in a golden frame hung on a gray-blue wall. The family crest of the Goodwin family in a plain black frame hung. The crest has a red and yellow shield in the center. The heads of what could be six lions are on the shield, three above and three below a red stripe with the letter O in the center. A golden griffin is above the shield. Below the shield is wrtten In lLUmene Luce on a banner. The name GOODWIN is at the bottom. A pair of brown and yellow fire buckets hung near the Goodwin Mansion staircase. A crystal chandelier with six electric candels in the center of the dining room of the Goodwin Mansion Ornate wallpaper with a cream base, two vertical columns of diamonds outlined in black, and three rows of green and dark cream vines on either side of the diamonds. Exterior of a two-story whitewashed wooden federal-style two-chimney house and matching shed with scaffolding around the building. Wallpaper with a cream base and two rows of two squares. The top row has flowers in the center of the squares. The bottom row has clusters of grapes.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 10/10

Accessibility: 8/10



Location: 14 Hancock St, Portsmouth, NH 03801, USA