The Fourth Stephen Decatur

Strawbery Banke Presents
HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH #197

A chip off the old block-and-tackle, Stephen Decatur IV of Kittery had big shoes to fill. Born in 1886, his Piscataqua roots went back to 1750 and a Revolutionary War ancestor. One famous relative, Stephen Decatur Jr., was a hero in the War of 1812 and died in a duel with another naval officer. (Continued below)

 

 

HISTORIC PHOTOS of the Greater Portsmouth Area appear here weekly

 The family name appeared on five US battleships and eleven American cities and communities. Despite getting into trouble while at Annapolis, Stephen IV served in World War I and became a naval historian. Although his initial attempt to restore Portsmouth’s South End as a national park failed in the 1930s, his efforts inspired the founding of Strawebry Banke in 1958. (Photo courtesy of Douglas Armsden)

MORE on Decatur Plan for Portsmouth 

This image from the book STRAWBERY BANKE:
A Seaport Museum 400 Years in the Making
by J. Dennis Robinson
(c) Strawbery Banke Museum Collection