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It's the hidden historic neighborhood you've heard about, but never visited. Some say it looks like an English village, which in a way, it is. Atlantic Heights was built as low-income housing in 1919 in the English garden style. See for yourself  on Saturday, July 13 from 9:00am to-1:00pm at the Fourteenth Annual Tour of the Backyards and Gardens of Atlantic Heights. (Continued below) 

It is an historic neighborhood of modest brick homes on the banks of the Piscataqua River. The neighborhood, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, was built in as a self-contained community to house workers for the Atlantic Heights Ship Yard. The site of the shipyard is now where the I-95 Bridge connects New Hampshire and Maine but the neighborhood is much the same as it was in 1919.  You can walk to every one of the gardens on the tour.  

The tour is intended to promote a sense of community among neighbors and to showcase the way gardening has thrived as neighbors share plants and work together to beautify the public spaces in Atlantic Heights.  This year, several gardeners focused their energy on packing the adopt-a-spots with an amazing array of flowers which will be in full bloom o the day of the tour. 

The garden club has an annual plant and seed give away to encourage new gardeners so you will see some of the same varieties thriving in several yards. Despite a rainy day this year, passionate gardeners turned out to share perennials, shrubs and seedlings. 

Check out the community vegetable gardens and the raised beds in Big Rock Park where neighbors can snip herbs for their own use. 

Resourceful gardeners have created highly individual gardens ranging from traditional cottage borders, gardens with stonework or water features, imaginative gardens with artwork integrated into the landscape and thriving raised beds of well-tended vegetables planted by people committed to eating locally. 

These are handmade gardens which are created and tended by busy people who work hard to cultivate their gardens and the sense of community that makes Atlantic Heights unique. 

Atlantic Heights can be reached by taking a left at exit 7 off I-95 and then taking a right at the second traffic light onto Kearsarge Way.  Proceed down Kearsarge Way to Big Rock Park on the left where maps listing the open gardens will be available. There will be an artisan fair in the park featuring the work of Atlantic Heights’ crafters and there will also be an opportunity to purchase a copy of the book, Atlantic Heights: A World War 1 Shipbuilders Community. Restrooms at the ball field will be open for public use.  

A donation is requested so that the garden club can continue its community projects. The tour will be held rain or shine. And this year there are reprinted copies of an entire book on Atlantic Heights by architectural historian Richard Candee available for just $20.