Today’s downtown includes sites of the earliest urban settlement, the waterfront, homes of the early merchants, and, consequently, the earliest enslavements. Enslavement of Africans was part of Portsmouth life by 1645, although the first records of Portsmouth merchants participating in the slave trade were in the 1680s, with captives mostly male children and adolescents sold directly from ship or dockside near the area where Prescott Park is now. A 1775 census reported 656 enslaved Africans in New Hampshire, mostly in Portsmouth and adjacent towns. Since colonial times, Portsmouth’s population has remained 2 to 4 percent Black.
(← click image for larger map)
Download a printable PDF of the Downtown Portsmouth Map and Site Key to 24 sites
(2 page PDF, printable on 2 pages of letter-size paper)
BUY THE BOOK!
- Softcover, 7x10, 64 full color pages
- 37 historic sites described in detail
- Over 100 full color photos
- Street maps and key to sites
- $14.95 plus shipping
Downtown Portsmouth Map key:
- **Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire office, 222 Court St.
- Governor John Langdon House, 143 Pleasant St.
- William Pitt Tavern, 416 Court St., Strawbery Banke Museum
- * **Docks & view of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Prescott Park
- Sherburne House, Strawbery Banke campus
- South Meeting House, 280 Marcy St.
- *NH Gazette, corner of Howard & Washington Streets [private]
- **Cooper House & Beauty Shop, 171 Washington St. [private]
- Stoodley’s Tavern, 14 Hancock St., Strawbery Banke Museum
- Penhallow House, 93 Washington St., Strawbery Banke Museum
- **Warner House, 150 Daniel St.
- Saint John’s Church, 100 Chapel St.
- Waterfront, Ceres Street
- Moffatt-Ladd House, 154 Market St.
- *Black Whipple House, 127 High St. [private]
- Meeting Rooms, 14-16 Market Square, corner of Daniel & Pleasant Streets
- * **Town Pump and Stocks, next to North Church
- North Church, Market Square
- * **Pomp & Candace Spring House & Bakery, Church Street
- *The Music Hall (The Temple ), Chestnut Street at Congress Street
- **John Paul Jones House, 43 Middle St.
- Rockingham House, 401 State St. [private]
- African Burying Ground, Chestnut Street, between Court & State Streets
- South Church, 292 State St.
* The original structure no longer exists
** No descriptive plaque
