Quick History Stops: Portsmouth, NH | Part 3

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In September 2022, I visited Portsmouth, NH and discovered many Quick History Stops around the city. Part 3 in this four part mini-series features the Art ’Round Town even held on the first Friday of the month, public art to commemorate figures of the past, and historic buildings. This first stop is a sign across the street from the Liberty Pole & Shield from Part 2. Before the Prescott Sister created Prescott Park, as discussed in Part 1, this area of Portsmouth was the Red Light District, filled with “houses of ill-fame and low-class saloons”. More information about the Red Light District can be found on the digital version of the informational sign.

Red Light District Sign; standard light blue Portsmouth informational sign describing the people and places in the mid-19th century red light district, along with five photographs

Art ’Round Town

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. I began my visit at the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center at the Portsmouth Historical Society and then made my way to several galleries. The Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery of the New Hampshire Art Association featured pointillism style artworks, with many tiny dots of paint creating a nature scene or an abstract painting. Quilter Nancy Morgan used photograph references to create portraits of historic houses and boats using layers of fabric. At Todd Bonita Gallery, impressionistic paintings of local landscapes and building facades hung near prints of birds.

NM ART Sign; A dark green sign with gold letters attached to the side of a building Art in the Window; a canvas of blue, pink, and purple dot art behind three urns filled with paint brushes Quilt Boat; A small framed quilt of a sailboat Painting of a Lynx Quilt of Sheafe Warehouse and a boat Quilt of a house at Strawbery Banke Quilt of a black and yellow songbird Painting of beech trees with yellow autumn leaves on either side of a forest path Print of a bluejay on a tree Painting of a white sheep with a black face Painting of Hamilton House Painting of a yellow door

Portrait of Ruth Blay

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. Her death came in 1768 after five months of imprisonment in the local jail on the penalty of “concealment”, which was hiding the body of her illegitimate baby. Historian Carolyn Marvin, a professor of history and culture at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that the 31-year-old schoolteacher was given bad legal advice by jealous lawyers, as Blay had a good education for an 18th century woman. Proving her child was stillborn would have prevented the execution, although she would have been ostracized from Portsmouth society.

A painted sign on the side of a brick building. The sign reads in part 'HISTORY In 1768, Ruth Blay, a 31-year-old teacher from South Hampton, was tried, convicted, and publicly hanged for concealing the body of her illegitimate baby.' Mural of Ruth Blay; a pregnant woman with a noose tied around her belly

Historic Buildings

The three-story stone structure housing trendy Portsmouth Book & Bar, formerly the Portsmouth Custom House & Post Office, was constructed in 1860 after a design by Ammi Young. Born in Lebanon, NH in 1798 or 1799, he started his architectural career around age fourteen and drafted numerous public buildings, including the original Worcester County Courthouse in Worcester, MA. I did not go inside the current business, but I might have to visit when I return to Portsmouth. Across the street is a sign describing the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905, which ended the Russo-Japanese War. The event is more thoroughly described in an exhibit at Portsmouth Historical Society.

In a neighborhood not far from Wentworth-Gardner House, I came upon several houses with plaques, and I decided to investigate their original owners. While the sign on the brown saltbox building called Tobias Langdon House had little more than an approximate construction date, circa 1710, the name matches to that of a ship captain, wheelwright, and grandfather to Governor John Langdon. Tobias lived from 1660 to 1724 and had at least nine children with his wife, Mary Hubbard. According to Portsmouth historian Valerie Cunningham — a member of New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, writer for the history website Black Past, and creator of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail — Tobias owned several enslaved people and willed them to his son, John Langdon, Sr., upon his death.

A yellow Federalist style house named for mariner ship builder WM Tredick was built in 1793 according to its plaque. The Tredick family had a few Williams who lived in the Portsmouth area. While the most likely William Tredick was not born until 1807, his father was Capt. Henry Tredick, who lived from 1766 to 1815 and is described on Find a Grave as “a prosperous ship owner, mariner, and importer”. I imagine that Capt. Henry constructed the building and willed it to his son.

A plaque on a light blue Federalist style house is the birthplace of James Thomas Fields, a bookseller and editor born in Portsmouth in 1817. From 1861 to 1871, he was the owner and editor of the Atlantic Monthly, started as an abolitionist magazine and now called The Atlantic. During Fields’ tenure, the magazine published works by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Julia Ward Howe, John Greenleaf Whittier, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Besides working with New England authors, Fields was friends with Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Robert Browning. His wife, Annie Adams Fields, was friends and later a partner to the romance author Sarah Orne Jewett from South Berwick. Perhaps the Pride flag hung on the side of the building is a reference to them.

Portsmouth Custom House & Post Office; a three-story stone building in downtown Portsmouth Tobias Landon House; a brownish olive green three story saltbox house on a red brick sidewalk. Short decorative trees line the front of the house. An American flag flies over the bright red door. An off-white sign with handpainted stenciled words reading WM TREDICK 1793 MARINER SHIP BUILDER. The sign is attached to a yellow clapboard wall. A white sign with a black border. Words written in a handprinted serif found read THE TOBIAS LANGDON HOUSE CIRCA 1710. The sign is attached to a brown clapboard wall. William Tredick House; Side view of a yellow painted, two-story, Georgian style house on a red brick sidewalk. James T. Fields House; a light blue, two-story, Georgian style house with white trim, two front doors, a white gate to the side of the house, and a Pride flag flown over the farther away door. Light blue sign with the City of Portsmouth seal and the title Treaty of Portsmouth 1905. The sign includes information about the treaty, photographs from the time of the treaty and more recent commemorations, and an image of the Noble Peace Prize. James T. Fields House sign; an old sign with a 1980s style font and a black-and-white image of James T. Fields. The text describes the accomplishments of the editor, along with a poem he had written. The sign is attached to a light blue clapboard wall by a rough, white, wooden frame.

My final historic building highlight is North Church of Portsmouth, also called Market Square Church, a member of the United Church of Christ. According to the timeline on their website, a church has been on the current location since 1712, but this building was not constructed until 1855, with stained glass added in 1890. Past congregants include William Whipple, signer of the Declaration of Independence and owner of Moffatt-Ladd House; John Langdon, signer of the U.S. Constitution, governor of New Hampshire, and owner of Langdon House; and John Paul Jones, naval commander during the American Revolution and renter in a house that now bears his name.

A beautiful three-story Georgian style house with a natural stain over the clapboard. An American flag flies over the natural wood door. The deep blue sky over the house has a unique patchy cloud pattern. North Church of Portsmouth; a red brick church with three main doors and a towering white steeple overlooking Market Square.
Location: Portsmouth, NH 03801, USA