Today we have three even smaller photographs from a vacation. These three measure 1.5″ by 2.5″ and each has the name of the location in fine print on the lower left hand edge of the card. This first image is the Thomas Bailey Aldrich House, Portsmouth, NH. Aldrich was a writer in the 19th century, and editor of The Atlantic Monthly, a magazine that is still in publication today. He was a prolific writer and poet, well regarded among the “bohemians” of the mid nineteenth century. The house itself is part of the Strawbery Banke neighborhood of Portsmouth, the first neighborhood in New Hampshire to be settled by Europeans. It is a collective museum of various homes.
Next up is the Hotel Wentworth, New Castle, NH. Built in 1874, it operated under various owners until the 198s when it closed under heavy financial burden. Because of its stature as a historic landmark and being one of the few remaining properties representative of America’s “Gilded Age”, the hotel was eventually restored and opened as a Marriott in 2003. It is member of the Historic Trust for Preservation. Today it operates as Wentworth by the Sea. The very photo above was also used as a color postcard in the early 1900s.
Finally is the Rockingham Hotel, Portsmouth, NH. An example of Colonial Revival architecture, it was built in 1885 as a hotel. It was apparently built as a tribute to an older hotel that had once occupied the land and dated back to the Colonial period. Numerous US Presidents used either the original building or the Rockingham Hotel, through 1973 when it was converted to condos. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1982.
Who Were They? 