LOST & FOUND BEN GOODRIDGE
Photos courtesy of Portsmouth Public Library
In Portsmouth’s Italian-rooted North End, ongoing efforts in urban renewal have wiped clean many of the neighborhood’s old, wooden homes. Now, many in the community are working to remember and celebrate these lost images, memories, and stories.
T
he hopeful spring sunrise over the Piscataqua River has been a treasured sight to the citizens of Portsmouth for centuries. Since the city’s founding in 1623, the people here have enjoyed the beauty of shimmering light on the water as they set to their daily routines. In the North End – one of the oldest sections of the city – families have watched buildings rise and fall, ships sail for war, and businesses spring to life and fade away. Yet for many in the Italian-rooted neighborhoods, there has always been that familiar view out towards the river, or at least an opening for the salty sea air to flow through. Now, all of that could be changing. The city has ok’d a long list of construction projects – steps in an urban renewal effort that has been taking place for decades in the city. Some of the buildings – a Whole Foods plaza and a group of condominiums, to name a few – will block many of the community’s cherished views of the Piscataqua. These projects are nothing new to the people of Portsmouth. “The city’s North End was basically demolished by urban renewal around 1970,” says Courtney MacLachlan, a preservationist who works at the
20 Rediscover New Hampshire June 2014
Portsmouth Athenaeum, a private library founded in 1817 that houses material of historical importance to the area. “At that time, the neighborhood was comprised of old wooden homes crowded together with small yards. Many of them had been divided into apartments. Some of the houses were in bad shape, some not so bad.” But when it comes to urban land redevelopment, city officials don’t always discriminate. “A few of the buildings were saved, not torn down. As for the rest, the owners were paid off and the buildings scrapped, especially the Deer St. and Russell St. areas.” Those roadways are known as the heart and soul of the North End, and while many of the old buildings were wiped away for larger venues, such as the Sheraton Hotel on Hill Street, the view toward the river always remained. “At the time [of the 70’s urban renewal], the neighborhood was mostly inhabited by Italian Americans whose families had immigrated to the US circa 1900 to 1920,” says Machlachlan. “They worked in shoe factories and in the shipyards, and later many of them owned small businesses in town like Mario’s Market on Market Street. The families were large and intergenerational, and because the neighborhood was