Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmouth was formerly the home of the Strategic Air Command's Pease Air Force Base, since converted to Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard in Kittery on the southern boundary of Maine near the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
America was the first ship of the line built for the Continental Navy, but she never saw service there, being given to France after launching.
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States, and the oldest incorporated town in Maine. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town in the state, it is a tourist destination known for its many outlet stores.
The Piscataqua River is a 12-mile-long (19 km) tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River to the Atlantic Ocean. The drainage basin of the river is approximately 1,495 square miles (3,870 km2), including the subwatersheds of the Great Works River and the five rivers flowing into Great Bay: the Bellamy, Oyster, Lamprey, Squamscott, and Winnicut.
USS Ranger was a sloop-of-war in the Continental Navy, serving from 1777–1780 and the first to bear her name. Built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, she is famed for the solo raiding campaign carried out by her first captain, John Paul Jones, during naval operations of the American Revolutionary War. In six months spent primarily in British waters, she captured five prizes, staged a single failed attack on the English mainland at Whitehaven, and caused Royal Navy ships to be dispatched against her in the Irish Sea.
Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet was an American merchant and soldier in colonial Massachusetts. He is widely remembered for organizing, financing, and leading the 1745 expedition that captured the French fortress of Louisbourg during King George's War. He owned a number of enslaved people and was considered one of the richest people in America.
Fort McClary is a former defensive fortification of the United States military located along the southern coast at Kittery Point, Maine at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. It was used throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The property and its surviving structures are now owned and operated by the State of Maine as Fort McClary State Historic Site, including a blockhouse dating from 1844.
The Peace Monument, also known as the Naval Monument or Civil War Sailors Monument, stands on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Peace Circle at First Street, N.W., and Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. The 44 foot high white marble memorial was erected from 1877 to 1878 in commemoration of the naval deaths at sea during the American Civil War. Today it stands as part of a three-part sculptural group including the James A. Garfield Monument and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.
The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is a lift bridge spanning the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine, carrying traffic of U.S. Route 1 Bypass. An original bridge by the same name was in operation from 1940 until 2016. A replacement span opened in March 2018.
Seavey's Island, site of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, is located in the Piscataqua River in Kittery, Maine, United States, opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It encompasses 278 acres (1.13 km2).
USS Portsmouth was constructed for the United States Navy in 1798 by master shipbuilder James Hackett to a design of Josiah Fox at what is now Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was built with funds contributed by the citizens of Portsmouth.
The Portsmouth Athenæum is an independent membership library, gallery, and museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. It preserves and provides access to an extensive collection of manuscripts, rare books, photographs, artworks and artifacts, and digital collections related to local history and genealogy, in addition to a circulating library for its membership. As an intellectual center of the community, it sponsors exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and other educational and cultural programs. The building, dating to 1805, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.
Badger's Island is located in the Piscataqua River at Kittery, Maine, United States, directly opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It carries U.S. Route 1 between the states, connecting to the Kittery mainland by the Badger's Island Bridge, and to New Hampshire by the Memorial Bridge. Now largely a suburb of Portsmouth, the island features houses, condominiums, restaurants and marinas.
William Badger was a master shipbuilder operating in Kittery, Maine, United States who built more than 100 vessels.
The Atlantic Heights Development is a historic company-built worker subdivision in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Bounded by I-95, the Piscataqua River, and the tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad, this small neighborhood was built in 1918–1920 to meet housing demand for workers at the Atlantic Company Shipyard, located just to the south, and served as a prototype for later residential subdivisions. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
The Newmarket Industrial and Commercial Historic District encompasses the heart of a distinctive 19th century mill town, Newmarket, New Hampshire. Its mill complex is regionally distinctive for its extensive use of stone from an early date, and the town is relatively well-preserved due to a significant economic decline after the mills closed in 1920. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Stone School, listed in 1978, is a contributing resource.
The Kittery Community Center is located in the former Frank C. Frisbee Elementary School at 120 Rogers Road in Kittery, Maine. The building, built in 1943 by the United States government as part of war-related expansions of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 for this association. It served Kittery as a school until 2009, and was converted for use as a multi-function community center providing space for arts, culture, and recreational activities in 2011-12.
John Paul Jones Memorial Park is a municipal park in the town of Kittery, Maine. The trapezoidal park, flanked by the lanes of United States Route 1 approaching the Memorial Bridge across the Piscataqua River, was established in 1926 and named for American Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones. Its centerpiece is a memorial commemorating the soldiers and sailors of the state of Maine, designed by Bashka Paeff. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The Portsmouth Downtown Historic District encompasses the historic urban core of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. With a history dating to the 17th century, Portsmouth was New Hampshire's principal seaport and the center of its economy for many decades, and the architecture of its urban center is reflective of nearly four centuries of history. The district is roughly L-shaped, radiating from the downtown Market Square area to South Street in the south and Madison and Columbia streets in the west, with more than 1,200 historically significant buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The district includes 35 previous listings on the National Register, and five National Historic Landmarks.
