Strawbery Banke

Portsmouth, NH was once called Strawbery Banke.  Named for the wild strawberries. And there is only one "r" in the berry part of the name.

Now there is a museum which encompasses the original settlement area and some of the old homes and businesses that were there from the 1600s to the 20th century.

It's a chance to time travel.

The tour begins with an orientation walk about with a guide.  Then you're on your own to explore all the buildings open - some with docents and some with re-enactors.

The wide green below was once a tidal inlet called Puddle Dock.  It was filled in at the end of the 1800s.  Sea captains' homes and warehouses once opened directly on the water where the tide rose 14 feet.

Some of the structures are still in the process of renovation.

This is the oldest building c. 1695.

 It's a time travel because you step into a house and it may be the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, or 1900s as this one below was.  1950s to be exact.

No dial phone!

The other side of the house was an earlier century, 1790s.  The original house was divided into a duplex in more modern times. The museum has kept the halves but in different centuries.

This sign was interesting.

Flags out front helped us track the time period of the building.

In this house you could see the layers of wall paper and construction techniques.

The author Thomas Bailey Aldrich, a contemporary of Mark Twain, owned this house which once belonged to his grandfather.

We were given a tour by the "wife" of the caretaker.  The time period was 1919.

In another building was an exhibit on Vice: Change Over Time.  I had to photograph the wall paper.

The table was laid to show how items of vice have changed.

Glad our water pipes are not wooden anymore.

Another house set to show a time period of living: early 19th century and home to an English immigrant and widow.

Here's the outside of the house.

Across the alley is this grander home built in 1762 and furnished in the style of an early 19th century merchant.

Another home, this one of an immigrant escaping pograms in Russian.

This tavern keeper from 1777 was a loyalist.  He didn't know who had signed the Declaration of Independence from his colony of New Hampshire.

The Little Corner Store took us to 1943.

Mrs. Abbott explained rationing to us.

And then we were introduced to cooking over an open fireplace.

This museum is truly several windows back in time.