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Baby Mayor Dedicates Bridge in 1923
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Written by SeacoastNH Archive
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 SeacoastNH.com Presents
Historic Portsmouth #252
This still taken from a rare 1923 Pathe newsreel shows an unhappy-looking Eileen Dondero. Eileen did not know until the last minute that she had been selected to open the Memorial Bridge. The daughter of future Portsmouth Mayor Mary Dondero, young Eileen also grew up to become a long-serving mayor of the city. (continued below)
Eileen cut the ribbon and rode up on the bridge. Here she poses reluctantly for the film cameras with NH Gov. Brown and Governor Baxter of Maine. Pathe News was a British company. In its heyday during the silent film era, Pathe weekly newsreels reached 3.5 million viewers in 1,500 theaters. On Tuesday millions learned that the historic bridge linking Kittery and Portsmouth has been placed on the 2009 "Most Endangered" list by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Eileen Dondero Foley, who attended a 1998 rededication of the bridge still lives in Portsmouth. (Frame grab courtesy of JBC Communications from Portsmouth Public Library film)
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Images on SeacoastNH.com
Courtesy Portsmouth Public Library
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