This aerial image offers a crisp document of Portsmouth’s changing waterfront in the early 1960s. The two completed portions of modern Prescott Park, as you can see, are separated by the last industrial chunk of the South End. Originally an English plantation with one house in 1631, this area became a world trade center in the 1700s crowded with tall ships. (Continued inside)

The flattened area of the park to the left has been filled in, as has the "The Creek", now the flat campus at the center of Strawbery Banke Museum. But it is easy to see from this perspective, how the "puddle" of Puddle Dock once connected to the South Mill Pond at the top of this photo. This picture by the late photographer Douglas Armsden shows the final days of the residential neighborhood that was at this moment being altered by a federal urban renewal project. And keep your eye on the house with the two chimneys at the center of the frame, site of the current museum parking lot. We’ll zoom in on that building next week and tell a memorable tale. (Photo courtesy of Strawbery Banke Museum)

Bonus Close-Ups

From Strawbery Banke Museum Collection
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