SeacoastNH.com Presents 
HistoricPortsmouth#503

What better way to "keep Portsmouth Portsmouth" than to measure our progress against the city's official seal from the past? I scanned this one from an 1873 report on the "Return of the Sons and Daughters" celebration, but there's a larger seal hanging on the wall of the city council chambers. (Click headline for full article) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents 
Historic Portsmouth #485  

The evolution of Halloween as a full-blown commercial extravaganza speaks volumes about our increasingly material world. Back before seasonal superstores and ornate parades, this was a humble and much-less-scary affair. (Click headline for full details and pic) 

Historic Portsmouth #478  
SeacoastNH.com Archive

We all have our Gilley stories. Mine are legion and most not fit for publication. The first time I partook of a Gilley dog and beans the rolling restaurant was parked in Market Square. (Continued below with photo) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents 
Historic Portsmouth #477  

The USS L-8, seen here in Kittery, was commissioned on August 30, 1917.  L-8 was the first LAKE class submarine of its class built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. This early submarine served on the East Coast. (Continued below) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents 
Historic Portsmouth #471

If you have yet to "discover" the city's historic Atlantic Heights neighborhood, this is a good weekend to sail down Kearsage Way. All the streets are named for Portsmouth-build ships -- Falkland, Raleigh, Crescent, Saratoga  etc. -- and the low income housing project was built by Uncle Sam in 1919. (Continued below) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents  
Historic Portsmouth #467 

A couple of weeks ago we showed the Ceres Street ferry landing all smashed up with boats apparently tossed onto the docks by a hurricane. Seems only fair to put things back together this week. (Continued below)

SeacoastNH.com Presents 
Historic Portsmouth #469  

This image comes from sailor, author, and maritime illustrator William Gilkerson and represents the best scholarship available as to how the sloop of war Ranger looked. No plans survive, but historians believe the design was scaled down from the Raleigh, also built by William Hackett. (Continued below) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents 
Historic Portsmouth #468 

No other photo from the archives seems more appropriate this week than this shot of the 1922 Memorial Bridge span arriving on the scene. How often do we get to see history so vividly repeated? The arrival of the middle span for the new bridge across the Piscataqua this week looked hauntingly familiar. (continued below) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents 
Historic Portsmouth #466  

When I was digging through 1980s files this week for my article on the Market Square Mural (Portsmouth Herald, Monday, June 2) I stumbled on this old gem by photographer Ralph Morang. Controversy raged back in those days too about whether the city needed a high-rise municipal parking facility. (Continued below) 

SeacoastNH.com Presents
Historic Portsmouth #465

Hit the Decks! Do you know why they named that restaurant on Ceres Street the Old Ferry Landing? Well, um, because it was once a landing for the ferry that regularly criss-crossed the river to Kittery.  (Continued below)