19th Century History Timeline  (continued)

1803
Following the first of three great Portsmouth fires, Portsmouth citizens petitioned the general court for permission to remove the state house from the Parade as part of a street-widening program and as a means of reducing the danger of fire from this large, wooden structure. The legislature responded with an act (not utilized at that time) empowering the town to remove the building.

1809
Concord, NH was designated the permanent seat of state government, leaving the statehouse as a Rockingham County court house and a home for various Portsmouth organizations.

1817
The Town of Portsmouth, having assumed responsibility for maintenance of the state house, carried out the first of a series of repairs, some of which entailed removal of deteriorated exterior architectural features.

1834
The Portsmouth town meeting resolved that the state house "ought to be removed" from Market Square.

1836
The Town of Portsmouth entered into agreements with the North Congregational Church, the State of New Hampshire, Rockingham County, and other interested parties to remove the state house from the square. Private citizens subscribed $700 toward costs of removal in order that the square might be opened up to enhance beauty, traffic, and business.
SPECIAL:

The building was sold to Capt. Israel Marden, who began to strip the building and sold the eastern end of the structure to Mads Danielson, a Norwegian-born boardinghouse proprietor who owned a lot on Pitt (later Court) Street.

Danielson boarded up the open end of the fragment with second-hand timbers and boards and had the shell removed and remodeled into a Greek Revival-style dwelling that long stood at 47 Court Street.

1876

Sarah Haven Foster noted in her "Portsmouth Guidebook" that the building at 47 Court Street was part of the old state house. This was followed by a similar note by Lewis W. Brewster in the "Portsmouth Journal" of April 6, 1878.

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