portsmouth athenaeum

A secret find in Portsmouth. A must see for a local history buff. Their hours that they are open to the public though are limited.

Went to see an exhibit on fires in Portsmouth and spend over a hour with the staff looking for ancestors. Wonderful bilding overlooking market square.

OK, so it's a very big nutshell. It contains so much local history - mainly in the form of original documents and artifacts - that have been collected or passed through families to them, that it ends up being a treasure trove of past history for researchers, genealogists, small tour groups, and those just wanting to sit and read books and documents that cannot be found elsewhere. My family - Wendell, Porter, Lamson, and more - have provided much our family history to the Athenaeum as well.

Very interesting place and very helpful staff/volunteers.

This should not be on the tourist trail, this is a research library that contains New England genealogy and rare books and some artifacts. Currently only part of one floor was available for public viewing. The first floor is closed due to a locked door and key failure and so one must go around to third-floor it in which one enters their business offices. Through that room is another room that was poorly lighted that contains artifacts of a naval engagement on Lake Erie - 1813. Except for the business portion, most of the three floor building were found to be dark and pretty messy. Among this far bust of Patriots and collections of rare records and old New England books.Where this could be one of the finest historical research centers in Portsmouth It look like a overused! poorly maintained study library found in a frat dorm.I am in history buff and found the place messy and depressing and in bad need of attention and a good cleaning, at least remove of the clutter of many papers just thrown about. I visited this center on a festive weekend and found the lights turned off in every room except the business office.

We climbed the two flights of stair to the Athenaeum not sure what to expect but were well rewarded. We are history buffs so this place was right up our alley. They also get extra points for being about the only historic site in Portsmouth open on a January weekend.The staff were great, very friendly and knowledgeable and we spent quite a bit of time going through a tiny fraction of their collection of old books and maps. We were able to get the answers to some pretty obscure questions about Portsmouth history.If you interested in getting more than just the cursory tour of a historic house and want to really dig into Portsmouth history this is place to do it.