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Portsmouth Monuments and Memorials

PORTSMOUTH QUICK GUIDE

Two major civil war monuments, each in its own park, are the city’s key memorial structures – unless you count the Memorial Bridge itself. The following Exclusive SeacoastNH guide quickly sums up the primary site in the immediate Portsmouth area.

 

 

 

SEE more Monuments and Memorials

For all its history, Portsmouth has surprisingly few monuments to the past. Perhaps the abundance of historic houses function as memorials to local people. Perhaps the cost of a good monument is more than local Yankees are willing to spare. We have not included every wall plaque and park bench, but all the significant public sculpture is here.

Albacore Memorial
Market St Extension, Portsmouth
Outside the Albacore Submarine Museum (see Maritime Heritage) is a small garden with a memorial to sub crewmen and the sculpture of a dolphin that appears to be swimming among the greenery. (More)

Celia Thaxter Birthplace
50 Daniel St, Portsmouth
Although no birth certificate exists, historians believe the local Isles of Shoals poet was born on Daniel Street on June 29, 1835. A small plaque is located outside what is now the store City and Country. Celia’s father Thomas Laighton worked across the street at the curved brick Custom House building before moving to White, Smuttynose and Appledore islands. (more)

David Thompson Monument
Route 1A, Rye
The state of New Hampshire has done precious little to commemorate the settling of the colony in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, MA. Historians generally agree that David Thomson (Thompson) and his wife Amais and 10 hardy fishermen built a small fort and palisade called Pannaway Manor at what is now Odiorne Point in Rye. David Thomson had a charter from NH founders Mason and Gorges to establish a fishing colony. In return he was to receive an island. A year after his arrival he brought stores of much needed supplies to the Pilgrims and two years later he went to the colony of Boston to lay claim to Thomson’s Island there. Then he disappears from history, though the fishermen in his group remained and his wife later remarried. Little is known of the "First Yankee". (more)

Fitz-John Porter Statue
Haven Park, Pleasant St, Portsmouth
The man on the horse in Haven Park was a complex character. A Civil War general, Porter (1822–1901) was born in Portsmouth and taught at West Point. Although distinguished in battle, Porter was accused of disobedience that reportedly led to a Union defeat at the Second Cattle of Manassas. At his court martial, Porter placed the blame back on his accuser and superior officer Gen. John Pope. Porter fought tirelessly to regain his reputation and was eventually vindicated in 1879. Porter was reinstated in 1886. The equestrian statue here was built by a friend of Porter’s to commemorate his reinstatement to service. It details his military career, including a daring spy mission in which Porter used a hot air balloon to fly over enemy lines. The bronze statue of Porter, who once lived nearby, seemed the appropriate monument. A local legends says that the equestrian statue was originally to appear in Haymarket Square, but the rear end of the horse facing the local church was unacceptable to parishioners.

Edward Hilton Memorial
Spaulding Turnpike, Hilton Point, Dover, NH
This large rock was placed here by the descendants of Edward Hilton and his brother, the fishmonger who received a royal patent to settle here at the opening to Great Bay in 1623. In the complex history of the founding of New Hampshire, the Hiltons are often ignored, but their claim is equivalent to that of David Thompson at Rye and created early territorial arguments – although no battles, with Portsmouth at what is called Bloody Point. There is an official state historic marker here as well.

Immigration Sculpture
Four Tree Island, Portsmouth
A gull-streaked sculpture at the tip of this island overlooks Prescott Park and the Memorial Bridge. Part whale tale, part human face, this Cabot Lyford sculpture honors those "who sailed here to find a new life". (more)

Memorial Bridge
Route 1, Portsmouth to Kittery
The $1.5 million Memorial Bridge (see Bridges), dedicated in 1923, was a phenomenal accomplishment with three 300-foot sections spanning the Piscataqua River and permanently linking Kittery, Maine with Portsmouth, NH. It is dedicated to the those who served in World War I. (more)

North End Memorial
Russell St, Portsmouth
The memorial bench across from the Sheraton was placed by former residents and relatives of the Italian neighborhood that was torn down here in the early 1970s. The destruction of the city’s "Little Italy" by urban renewal. The promised modern city center was never built on the razed site. (more)

Old North Cemetery
Woodbury Ave, Portsmouth
There is an official NH state historic marker here. (See Historic Cemeteries)

Old State House
Market Square, Portsmouth
Before the American Revolution John Wentworth, the last British governor, began building what became New Hampshire’s first statehouse. It stood in the middle of Market Square between the North Church and the Athenaeum. George Washington was honored on its steps and the Declaration of Independence was read from the statehouse balcony. In the 1830s it was broken up and taken away. A portion of the original building was later discovered on Court Street nearby and moved to Strawbery Banke Museum. When plans to restore the building faltered in the 1970s, the timbers were disassembled and moved to Concord, NH where they remain in a trailer at this writing. (more)

Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail
A series of 24 locations are being marked by brass plaques on the city’s African-American history walking tour. (more)

Portsmouth Plains
Route 33 near intersection with entrance to Pease Tradeport
NH historic marker indicates the site of an Indian raid on Fune 26, 1696, Also site of militia training fields and the Plains Tavern (1728-1914).

Ranger Memorial
John Paul Jones Park, Kittery, ME
This small granite marker with its brass plaque was placed on Badger's Island (formerly Rising Castle Island) in the early 20th century. It marked the site where John Paul Jones reportedly launched the sloop of war Ranger in Novembe 1777. In Ranger, Jones and 145 Piscataqua sailors attacked the English and Irish coastline, then captured Drake, a startling deed against the largest Navy in the world. The tiny attacks had a large effect on the British morale and economy and helped bring the message of the American Revolution to Europe. The monument was later moved from the actual launch site to its present site nearby. (more)

Sacrifices of War Memorial
John Paul Jones Park, Kittery, ME
This memorial by Russian-born sculptor Bashka Paeff created a stir before it was installed in 1926. It was designed d to honor Maine World War I veterans, soldiers and sailors. Her monument design depicted a pair of life-sized naked men, drowned in the sea. Above them, a draped, fearful female figure cradles a naked child. Powerful and evocative, the sculpture included no military figures and was considered by some as an expression of pacifism. The addition of military inscriptions and smaller figures satisfied the opposition and the bronze piece was cast. Weighing 2,800 pounds, the bronze plate is considered among the largest set at that time in the United States. The tablet is 11 by 8 feet and was originally called "The Horrors of War".

Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Goodwin Park, Islington St, Portsmouth
After the bloody Civil War, memorials to the dead and wounded appeared by the hundreds across the nation. This one was dedicated with a large parade on July 4, 1888. Shortened considerably by the loss of its original pedestal, it remains the largest memorial sculpture in the city. The statues, in part, honor men of the USS Kearsage, the Portsmouth-built ship that defeated the Confederate Alabama in one of the only major sea battles of the era. Made of zinc, a low cost metal popular in early public sculpture, the Soldiers and Sailors monument deteriorated rapidly. In 2002 the monument and the park were part of $250,000 renovation project.

Squalus Memorial
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME
The story of the Squalus rescue is among the most dramatic in Seacoast history and the only successful submarine rescue in naval history. Built in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1939, Squalus sank mysteriously in 240 feet of cold Atlantic water on a test dive off the Isles of Shoals. Twenty-six men from our Shipyard drowned when the engine room flooded. Thirty-three men survived when a diving bell invented by "Swede" Momson made a series of daring rescue attempts. The Squalus was eventually floated, rebuilt and recommissioned as the USS Sailfish. Later the conning tower was removed and turned into this memorial at PNS. Unfortunately, it is rarely open to public view and restricted currently to military personnel. In 2001 the story of the Squalus was adapted from a book by Peter Maas into the TV movie "Submerged", filmed in Malta.

Stagecoach Memorial
Vaughan Mall, Portsmouth, NH
This little monument was made from stone quarried in Portsmouth in 1803. It stood at the corner of Vaughan and Congress streets to mark the departure point of the stagecoach to Boston.

Treaty of Portsmouth
Pleasant Street, Market Square
The most significant event in city’s history was the negotiation and signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth at the end of the summer of 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Prize for orchestrating the end of the Russo-Japanese War here, although Roosevelt never actually attended the negotiations. The city celebrated an extensive centennial event in 2005, but currently only one small plaque exists high up on the side of the Piscataqua Bank building. It honors Calvin Page, a local lawyer, who arranged to house Russian and Japanese delegates at the nearby Wentworth Hotel and picked up the tab of $25,000, amounting to roughly half a million dollars today.

William Whipple Memorial
Corner Jinkins Ave, Pleasant St, Portsmouth
This plain modern memorial honors the Portsmouth man who signed the Declaration of Independence. It overlooks the South Mill Pond at the base of Haven Park and is easily missed in a little triangle across from the parking lot there. Whipple (1730-1785) is buried in the Old North Cemetery and his home, the Moffatt-Ladd House is open to the public on Market Street. (more)