Abby Epplett, Historian

Throughout my three-day trip to the Greater Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I walked along the Black Heritage Trail . A similar trail exists in Boston, Massachusetts alongside Boston African American National Historic Site, whose founder, Byron Rushing, spoke during Day 1 of the Historic New England Summit 2022 . A self-guided audio tour is available through the Geotourist website and app , while a map of the tour can be printed at home or picked up at the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, managed by Portsmouth Historical Society . Stops on this tour include historic house museums, churches, private residences, and places where the original structure no longer exists.

Today, October 30, I went to “Be the Voice of the Kittacuck”, an intertribal gathering and collaboration with local river advocates. Kittacuck is the Nipmuc name for the Blackstone River. As shows on the official poster embedded below, the event lasted from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and took place at Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which is part of the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park .

During my three-day trip of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I visited Governor John Langdon House , a property of Historic New England (HNE). With construction beginning in 1784, right before the Federalist Era of the United States, the exterior design of this oceanside mansion is mostly Georgian , an 18 th century English architectural style, while the interior was originally Rococo , an 18 th century French architectural style.

Disclaimer: The following article refers to death by suicide. If you live in the United States and you or a loved one are in a suicidal crisis or emotional distress, call 988 or text HELLO to 741741 for help. To learn more, click this link to visit the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website. During my three-day trip of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I visited Gilman Garrison House , a property of Historic New England (HNE). The rightfully paranoid Gilman family built the structure as a garrison, a fort that served as a living space and a tavern. The year of construction, 1709, is known thank to a test by the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory in 2005. The owners of the house were equally eccentric and tragic.

During my three-day trip of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I visited the American Independence Museum in Exeter. This classic New England town is about a twenty to thirty minute drive south of Portsmouth on the border with Massachusetts. A charming museum with knowledgeable guides, a fun gift shop, and great branding, the American Independence Museum is a great stop for families who have walked the Freedom Trail through Boston NHP in Boston, Massachusetts; seen the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall NHP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; or toured Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia.

During my three-day trip of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I walked through nearby Exeter listening to a Historical Walking Tour on izi.TRAVEL , a website and app for self-guided audio tours. This tour is vetted by the Exeter Historical Society and was recorded by local boy scouts and their family members. Additionally, a written transcript beneath the audio player allows Deaf and hearing impaired visitors, or anyone walking through busy downtown Exeter, to enjoy the tour. Stops can be visited in any orders.

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.

Rounding out my long weekend of New England History, on Sunday, October 16, I volunteered at the 42 nd annual Farm Days, held at Waters Farm in Sutton, Massachusetts . The festival is based around the farm house and property of the Waters family, some of whom still volunteer at the event. Their ancestor, Stephen Waters, built the original red house in 1757, and subsequent generations added onto the building. A favorite fact of the family is that the rare Sutton Beauty variety of apple was developed on the farm. The Waters family lived in the house for six generations, until Dorothea Waters Moran donated the home and its contents to the Town of Sutton. Since then, Waters Farm Preservation Inc has done a remarkable job preserving the property and hosting fun community events. The homestead has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985, and those records may be digitized in the future. A...

After two days of the Historic New England Summit (You can read my summaries of Day 1 and Day 2 ), I still could not get enough New England history and culture! On Saturday, October 14, I went to the Arts & Crafts Fair at Roseland Cottage , a Historic New England property in Woodstock, Connecticut that I first toured back on July 3. The fair is a tradition in Woodstock, now in its 40 th year.

October 14 was Day 2 of Historic New Summit 2022 held at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. Like Day 1 of the event , the theme was “Recovering New England’s Voices”. According to Historic New England’s Carissa Demore, “We are all recording our memoirs on the places where we spend time,” and I am glad for the opportunity to record memories at the Summit. Below are highlights from the event. A Civic Gateway: Revisioning the Otis House Nader Tehrani of Boston-based architecture firm NADAAA presented innovative ideas for restoring and renovating Otis House, a museum and historic document collections space operated by Historic New England (HNE). The building is located between the main campus of Mass General Hospital and Government Center. Constructed as a private home in 1796 after a design created by Charles Bulfinch , the house is connected to row houses with floors at different levels from the original structure. Tehrani hopes to improve accessibility t...

October 13 was Day 1 of Historic New England Summit 2022 held at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. The theme for the conference is “Recovering New England’s Voices”, after HNE’s multi-phase initiative to research the histories of marginalized people and communities. In the words of Dr. Alissa Butler, Study Center Manager at HNE, the organization seeks to “shift and recenter the learning experience to cover all these incredible stories”. Below are highlights from the summit with links to learn more. There was so much great conversation, and I could not include it all! Forging a New Lens The first speaker in this section were Dr. Alissa Butler , whose quote appears in the opening paragraph. She described the process of hiring experts in Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ, and women’s history. Two of her stories were familiar to me, as I had visited the associated HNE houses in September (Those blog posts are coming soon!). The organization recenters...

After a hiatus from the blog due to lots of traveling and photo editing, I’m back with an overview of quick history stops in southern Maine, where I visited back in August.

On my sixth and final stop of my tour of Maine, I visited Marrett House in Standish, operated by our favorite old house tour organization, Historic New England (HNE). This sprawling home, now on the National Register of Historic Places , is named for its second set of residents, the Marrett family. The father, Daniel Marrett , became the underpaid minister of the local church in 1796 and had better luck managing an apple orchard. When he was not giving sermons or grafting trees, Daniel raised six children with his first wife, Mary . After she died young, he remarried to Dorcas Hastings and had another eight children. The house must have been incredibly crowded.   Remarkably, considering the number of people involved, the house passed smoothly from one generation to the next. Daniel and Dorcas’ third son, Avery , inherited the house and orchard, turning the operation into a profitable business. The orchard’s specialty was Bal...