READ: Official SBM Press Release

The time has finally come. For the next year this web site is going to get to know Strawbery Banke Museum from the inside out. We’ve been peeking over the fence for at least three decades now. We’ve been attending special events and sometimes cutting through the grounds on our way across town. We’ve been sending tourists over and giving directions to people on the street. But we’ve never really honestly gotten to know the place.

Can’t say exactly why. We offer no excuses. Maybe it was the fence. Maybe it was the fee. Maybe it seemed that taking on the whole history of Strawbery Banke at once was a bit like eating a bowling ball.

But all that is changing. This week the museum broke ground on their new visitor center. It is a surprising looking building, not what we expected, but distinctly appropriate. It looks like an old maritime warehouse, simple and utilitarian. It looks like a building that has a purpose.

One purpose is to make the place more welcoming. It is the building where new people will start their journey into this unique campus of old houses, gardens and exhibits. It is the place that will make Strawbery Banke make sense.

This is not, by the way, the visitor center that we are advocating for Portsmouth. That is still desperately needed. That center will orient visitors to the whole of Portsmouth and Seacoast history, to all the other historic sites and independent museums that make this seaport so fascinating. The building at Strawbery Banke is a doorway into just one portion of that extraordinary story. It is a good start.

If you’re feeling déjà vu, this whole thing did happen a few years ago. The original Tyco-funded visitor center turned out to be located on top of an archeologically significant spot of land at the other end of the campus.

Nobody wants to remember that fiasco. But whatever does not kill us, makes us strong.

Now as it approaches its 50^th year, Strawbery banke seems stronger than ever. It was, after all, an organization born amid the crisis of urban renewal. It has taken a good slow time to mature, but that can be said for many of us Baby-Boomers. And Portsmouth too, has grown wiser and kinder over the years.

So in the spirit of the times, we are going to step through those historic doors. Rather than swallow the whole bowling ball, we will consume the place in bite-sized bits. You may, if you wish, come along and enjoy the meal. – JDR

SEE: Our Puddledock 400 year Timeline