new center opens doors to city’s culture

Just hours before the annual meeting of the Portsmouth Historical Society last week, volunteers were still hanging artwork in the new Discover Portsmouth Center that would be revealed to members after a year of anticipation.

From a ladder, Kristilyn Waite organized a grid of paintings from the 1930s by Harry M.S. Harlow in the visitor center. Each depicts a doorway of old Portsmouth, and together the exhibit is a perfect analogy of the center itself.

The Discover Portsmouth Center will soon become the central location welcoming visitors to enjoy all the arts, history and culture that the city has to offer. The three-year pilot project begins with a grand opening on Sunday, June 1. 

“The whole idea is to get somebody to go the next step, literally to walk around town,” said spokesperson Stephanie Seacord.

The introduction to Portsmouth, a city recently named one of the Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, makes it easier to learn about Strawbery Banke, seven historical houses, the Black Heritage Trail, Prescott Park, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, the USS Albacore Museum, the Music Hall and many other attractions.

The center makes new use of two historically important buildings at the corner of Middle and Islington streets—the Portsmouth Academy and the Benedict House, former location of Portsmouth Public Library. A visitor center in between connects the two buildings.

There are colorful wall panels and floor displays with photographs of the area’s cultural attractions and brochures with more information in the center. Staff members will provide up-to-date guidance on public events, and eventually may be able to sell tickets to local cultural happenings.

A theater at one side of the center plays “Welcome to Historic Portsmouth,” a roughly 10-minute film covering 400 years of the city’s history. The film, by the local company Atlantic Media Productions, won a Silver Telly Award for excellence. Historian Dennis Robinson references events that Portsmouth seldom gets credit for in classes. “Portsmouth isn’t a place in the history books. It’s the place where people wrote history,” Robinson says.

The Portsmouth Academy building will become a public gallery for rotating exhibits, public performances and private functions. Currently, there are paintings of New England by Russell Cheney and photographs of New Hampshire past and present by Peter Randall. The Benedict House will provide offices for non-profit organizations, making them easily accessible to visitors while offering space in a tight real estate market.

The concept of the center was initially proposed during a public meeting after the buildings became vacant when Portsmouth’s new library was constructed on Parrot Avenue, according to Seacord. The Historical Society replied to a request for proposals last May, and the proposal passed the City Council in December 2007. The Society worked over the winter to apply new paint, lay carpet and install lighting with the help of the local Lions Club and Rotary. The center will be open through October during the tourism season, and the pilot project lasts three years.

The original plan included rebuilding the wooden facade of the 1760 statehouse between the two brick buildings. The dismantled statehouse that had been located in Portsmouth is now stored in Concord for lack of a proper site to resurrect it. However, Seacord said, the plan doesn’t meet requirements for such an undertaking at this time. The Society continues to raise funds to make repairs and renovations to the buildings, while following historic preservation guidelines.

The center is also pursuing a fundraising campaign for operating expenses, estimated at $500,000 total over the next two years. According to a report released last year, history and the arts constitute a $38 million industry on the Seacoast.

According to Seacord, the average “heritage tourist” spends more than $200 per trip. By increasing foot traffic between historical and cultural venues in downtown, the Discover Portsmouth Center is expected to create an even greater economic impact. 

If the city ultimately approves the project beyond the three-year pilot period, the center will embark on a $3 million capital improvement phase.

The center was created through a collaboration of organizations, including Historic New England, the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in New Hampshire, SeacoastNH.com, the Gundalow Company and the Wentworth Gardner Tobias Lear House Association.     

Seacord said non-profit organizations that were once competitive have learned to join together because the same people go to different attractions while in the area. She said the center is not intended to replace any single organization, but to serve as a central information source to introduce people to all of them.

Elizabeth Farish, a regional site manager for Historic New England, said, “I look at it as a place where all cultural organizations can be represented in one place downtown.”

Also, Farish said, the collaboration says something about the character of Portsmouth. “The fact that this community, on a volunteer basis, created this space is a success in itself,” she said.