HISTORY NEWS

You can click through to a new exhibit about the Rck Rest summer house in Kittery, Maine. The exhibit “Claiming a Piece of the American Dream: African American Vacationers in New England, 1930-1964” is available online. It uses interviews and archival materials to tell the story of a word-of-mouth network of middle-class African Americans who learned to avoid intolerant or discriminatory businesses and were fiercely loyal to hotels and restaurants that welcomed them. The project was a “100 Years, 100 Communities” partnership with the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail. (Continued below)

HISTORY NEWS

Star Island Corporation CEO Victoria Hardy announced this week that Star Island received a grant from the Barbara K. & Cyrus B. Sweet III Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to an energy planning initiative on Star Island.  The funds will be used to support a study by the Island Institute of Rockland Maine to determine the most cost effective source of renewable energy that will help Star Island achieve energy independence.  The Island Institute is a membership-based community development organization focusing on the Gulf of Maine, particularly the fifteen year-round island communities off the Maine coast. (Continued below)

HISTORY NEWS

In four short years the Portsmouth Historical Society transformed the empty former public library into a gateway to the Seacoast’s art, culture and history sites and resources, creating the Discover Portsmouth Center at the intersection of Middle and Islington Streets – exactly where the city’s Master Plan had foreseen such a resource. With $900,000 in hand of the $1 million it took for the energy retrofit to make the DPC a viable year-round asset for City visitors and residents, the Society has launched a capital campaign to secure public support for the effort. $100,000 in donations to create a viable year-round asset for City visitors and residents. An energy retrofit project has been underway since October that replaces old air handlers, boilers, ductwork and ceilings with energy-efficient, made-in-America, new systems and lighting. (Continued below)

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

So far they have found artifacts dating to 1660s and the dig will continue in 2012. Archaeological excavations led by Dr. Neill De Paoli have provided the first concrete evidence of a late 17^th century and early 18^th century presence on the Goodwin homestead in South Berwick.  De Paoli, joined in 2011 by two Old Berwick Historical Society members, Steve Woodman and Phil Kendrick, has uncovered artifacts dating from c. 1650 to c. 1730, including fragments of German and English stoneware jugs, tankards, and glass wine bottles, English clay smoking pipes, English delftware and Portuguese or Spanish majolica plates and bowls, and turned lead and glass quarrels to casement windows. (Continued below)