A Convivial Social Feed

Happy Monday!

Today marks nine years since the second Memorial Bridge opened on August 8, 2013. Who attended the celebration?🌁🎉🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

We decided to travel 90+ years back to see the first Memorial Bridge while under construction on July 8, 1922.

From Badger's Island in Maine, the workers are seen navigatating the Kittery span onto the piers while spectators look on.

[PS1671]

We used #pannify to see more scene details. We also zoomed a little further to see the kids sitting (and one lounging?!) on a plank balanced over the Piscataqua River.😳🤯

The bridge was first known as the Piscataqua River Bridge and later dedicated as a World War I memorial giving it its name. On August 17, 1923, five-year-old Eileen Dondero Foley (1918-2016) cut the ribbon officially opening the bridge.

In 1944, Eileen's mother Mary Carey Dondero was elected as Portsmouth's first female mayor, the first in the state. Following her mother into politics, Eileen would serve as Portsmouth mayor for eight terms over 16 non-consecutive years. She attended the closing of the first bridge in 2009, and she dedicated the opening of the second bridge nine years ago. If you attended, you may recall her daughter, Mary Carey, escorting Eileen in a golf cart while she waved to the crowd.🥰

In the Athenaeum archives, you can find more on the Memorial Bridge, the Dondero family, and the Foley family. Search our collection online. Link in bio.

#memorialbridge #kittery #otd #piscataquariver #eileenfoley #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #Maine #seacoast❤ ...

We are mailing it in today, but for good reason. It's the @usnatarchives #archiveshashtagparty and the theme is #archivespostcard 📬💌

This well-worn early 20th-century postmarked postcard shows Market Street looking toward Market Square. You'll notice the trolley lines in the center of the street and the two-way traffic of both cars and horses. [PC0977]

Sent October 15, 1918, from Portsmouth, the postcard was addressed to Mr. George E. Jones M. M. 1/c at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Portsmouth (Kittery, Maine).

The M. M. 1/c would be Machinist's Mate, first class.

Don't get us wrong, we love a good postmarked postcard filled with mostly trivial bits of information about the weather, the trip, or the location. Feels how we might text each other today. But sometimes the messages offer a bit more for us the chew on over 100 years later.🍿

✍️"Shall expect to see you soon walking up this street. It didn't look at all natural to me. We have been quite busy to-day, how about working some Saturday night? Yes? No? Beth inquires for you every day. Is just the same old girl. We don't use the spray to make her work. --Joan[?]."

🤔

With the hope we transcribed correctly, we have a few questions / comments.🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

First, George is in the hospital, but Joan's got a work schedule to fill. More importantly, should we be worried about Beth? Is she human? What is the spray?😩 #justiceforBeth

We don't know anything about Joan or Beth, but we do know about George.

During WWI, in July 1917, George Elmer Jones (1890-1963) enlisted as a machinist's mate, second class, in Portsmouth. On his draft registration, we learn that he was a clerk at F. W. Lydston's, a men's clothing store on Congress Street. So asking someone in the hospital if he can work Saturday tracks. #screamsinretail

In September 1921, George married Florence Parker in Portsmouth. The couple had two daughters & the family lived in nearby Eliot, Maine. Census records show George was an iron worker and a machinist. He also was an employee for the Memorial Bridge. Sadly, he died in an automobile accident.

#georgejones #marketstreet #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #Maine #seacoast❤ ...

We are still hanging out in the South End for another #wherewasthiswednesday🤔.

Pictured is the old Peirce Island Bridge, a wooden plank bridge that once connected the island to the city via the foot of Gates Street. Photographer Douglas Armsden captured this shot in 1940 and another view of fishermen with the bridge in the background in 1951.

In 1923, the City of Portsmouth had purchased Peirce Island for recreational purposes, but the only pedestrian/vehicular access onto the island was from an old causeway on the southern side. This tidal causeway connected Peirce to Shapleigh Island, the first island on the road to New Castle (Route 1B). [Map]

By the summer of 1924, the new Peirce Island Bridge along the back channel was under construction. According to the Portsmouth Herald, a man named Joe Haley was overseeing the workers.

For many years, this wooden bridge served the people adequately, and for decades, it was the site for Memorial Day services.

Unfortunately by 1956, the old bridge was crumbling and beyond any repairs. The city recommended traffic be restricted to only foot or bicycle.

We have included an undated color slide from Alvah C. Card, of Marcy Street, showing the bridge most likely at its end with Brewster's wharf at left. We zoomed in to see the bridge condition and a child on a bicycle.🔎

In the Herald, the city discussed possible replacement plans. One solution involved revisiting the old Shapleigh Island causeway and replacing that with a new bridge; however, there was confusion over who now owned the causeway. Another idea was to purchase a 332 ft. steel bridge for sale in Weehawken, New Jersey.

Eventually in 1958, the Prescott Park Trustees contributed $40,000 (roughly $410,000 today) to build the present bridge on park property off Mechanic Street. In fact, the official name of the bridge is the Prescott Memorial Bridge. There is a marker on the mainland side.

👉You may recall us mentioning the Prescott Bridge a few weeks ago because the Portsmouth Yacht Club clubhouse formerly stood there.⭕️

In August 1959, the old Peirce Island Bridge was dismantled.

[P15.156 & P15.157 from #DouglasArmsden & P0054_0058 from Alvah C. Card.] ...

Last week for #wherewasthiswednesday🤔, we showed you the old Portsmouth Yacht Club on Mechanic Street. This week, we are moving next door.

In this real photo postcard, here's a view of two men standing in front of the store of grocer Robert R. Lear at 95 Mechanic Street on the corner of Gates Street in the South End, Portsmouth, NH. Undated, circa 1910.

Using #pannify, we zoomed into the photo for detail. There are two men standing in front of the Lear market with a young girl just inside the screen door. A cat is sitting inside the large front window. Building advertises groceries and country produce with posters for Tip Top Bread and La Touraine Coffee. Sign for the Portsmouth Yacht Club on the left, and "Boats to let" on the side of the building. Lear's store catered to the yacht club, of which he was a member, and he lived nearby on Gardner Street. En verso is the name "Alice" who may be the girl in the door.

Robert Roberts Lear (1862-1926) was a lifelong Portsmouth resident who lived with his wife, Anna Marr, on nearby Gardner Street. Of note, Lear rescued a six-year-old child from drowning off Mechanic Street (near his store) in May 1901.

The store might have suffered the same fate as the yacht club and was demolished; however, it may have been incorporated into a two-story duplex that appears on that site after 1920.

[Given in loving memory of Ann T. Travers, PS3279.]

#mechanicstreet #leargrocery #southend #rppc #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #NH #Maine #seacoast❤ ...

We hope you find some shade today.🥵

In this Davis Brothers stereocard, these Victorians found shelter from the sun by setting up this tent along the Seacoast, possibly in New Castle, Rye, or Kittery, circa 1870s. #coolingdowninthearchives

[James Dolph photograph collection, P0004_205b]

The original image is a bit faded, so for one photo, we enhanced the composition by both colorizing and adding a new sky...Maybe we want to actually swap out the sky today. More clouds, please. Is there an app for that?🌤

👉oh, and we included the original image.

Stay hydrated, stay cool, stay safe.💦

#davisbrothers #beachcamping #rye #newcastle #kittery #heatwave #stereocards #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #Maine #seacoast❤ ...

#wherewasthiswednesday🤔 collides with #WaterfrontWednesday with this photograph and hopefully cools us down.🥵

Do you recognize the location? 🕵‍♀️🕵‍♂️

We are looking at the old Portsmouth Yacht Club (PYC), circa 1900, which once stood opposite Point of Graves along Mechanic Street in the South End.

The PYC formed in April 1898 with 55 members and 22 boats. That September, the organization dedicated its new clubhouse seen here, built by founding member and trustee Charles S. Drowne (1858-1935).

According to the Portsmouth Herald, the first floor included a kitchen, closets, and a 50 x 60 ft. main reception room, finished in hard pine with "an elegant birch floor polished and waxed until it looked like glass." The second floor was also pine, but with maple flooring, and it was used for dancing and other club functions. Two large balconies extended the width of the building "affording a fine view of the waterfront."🥰

A 138-ft. floating stage was constructed for the boats.⛵️

We zoomed into the photo using #pannify. We also included several Sanborn maps to illustrate how the Puddle Dock waterway adjacent to the yacht club was filled in over time, eventually the site of today's Prescott Park. The maps also narrow the date of the photo as the building seen directly behind the clubhouse (a boat shop) was gone by 1910.

For 40 years, the PYC rented the clubhouse until they voted to "weigh anchor." They bought land and built a new clubhouse in New Castle, which opened in June 1938. The new site offered better anchorage, proximity to the ocean, and no waiting for the tide to rise. They are still there today.

Also in 1938, the former clubhouse was sold presumably to Charlie Dale, the lawyer for the Prescott Sisters who were forming Prescott Park. In the 1939 city directory, the Mechanic Street address no longer existed, indicating demolition. In 1958, the site became part of the new Peirce Island Bridge and also a forgotten area of the park, the city referred to as "Spruce Grove" in 1964.

We also zoomed into the photo to see the Shaw Warehouse, which still stands today in Prescott Park.

[Badger Family photograph collection, P0032_055] ...