Eagle Scout to be Honored

DOVER –

Troop 358 of Barrington is hosting an Eagle Court of Honor to recognize and celebrate Samuel Cheney for his achieving Eagle Scout.  The ceremony will be held on Sunday, June 3, at 1 p.m. at Saint Joseph Church, 150 Central Avenue in Dover.  Cheney’s Eagle project consisted of extensive work on the Waste Management Gonic Trails at Mount Isinglas Recreational Area in Rochester which included planning and directing the construction of 2 bridges across streams, the blazing of the Blue and Red trails with trail markers to improve navigability, installation of hand-made blue, red, and yellow directional arrow signs at key intersections, and installing a post at the trailhead with blue and yellow arrows to identify trail paths.  This project involved more than 206 hours of labor by members of his troop and other volunteers.

The Eagle Scout rank is the highest rank in Boy Scouting with only two percent of all scouts achieving this award. 

Special guest at the event will be Ovide Lamontagne, 2012 Candidate for Governor of New Hampshire and 2009 New Hampshire Distinguished Citizen of the Year. (courtesy photo)

Women with Wings Going to Cuba

PORTSMOUTH –

Voices from the Heart will celebrate their 18th year of singing on the seacoast and the launch of their third international tour with their concert, “Women with Wings….Vamos a Cuba!” on June 2 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at South Church in Portsmouth.

Celebrate this very special concert with “Voices” as they prepare for their July 1 launch. “We celebrate our 18th year of making music together and our send off to Cuba with this concert,” said Joanne Connolly, director.  “We will sing our hearts out with all our special songs from the last two decades.  Long time friends of “Voices” will hear their favorites, and new audience members will get to enjoy a great selection of fabulous “Voices” repertoire from around the globe; South African freedom songs, Yoruba songs of peace and welcome, American civil rights songs, spirituals, gospel, Native American and Japanese chants, and more.”

“Women with Wings” will be accompanied with their own drumming troupe, Drumamma; Nancy Hotchkiss, Jeanne Russell, Cheryl Booth, and Gail Berneike along with guest musician, Randy Armstrong.  “Our audiences are in for a special time of exuberant, hauntingly beautiful singing, along with the African heart beat of the djembe and the colorful sounds of rains sticks, ocean drums, shakuhachi, and Lakota Courting flute,” said Connolly.

“Voices” has had a very rich season of singing which will be echoed in this concert.

“Voices” opened at the Music Hall for the Soweto Gospel Choir from South Africa in February to welcome the choir and to honor the African Burying Ground on Chestnut Street.  And in May in preparation for their trip, Digna Guerra, the director of the National Choir of Cuba, stayed with Connolly for five days planning their exchange, visiting the seacoast and directing a “Voices” rehearsal.  “This trip is a real exchange” says Connolly, “in every sense of the word.  During my March visit to Cuba, Senora Guerra and I were able to imagine and plan the exchange; her visit to the Seacoast, our tour of Cuba and, still in the works, her visit here in the fall with the National Cuban Choir – it’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

If you would like to support this trip and exchange, you can find out more about preferred seating prices, c.d. packages, an opportunity to direct a “Voices” song at the concert, or have “Voices” perform a special concert just for you by visiting voicesfromtheheart.org.  When travelling to Ireland “Voices” supported Friends Forever and women’s refuges through Ireland and then in 2007 Voices travelled through Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia where they raised $140,000 to clear land mines left from the Balkan war.  Your support of “Voices” supports their work in the world.

Tickets are available now at Serendipity, 41 Pleasant Street in Portsmouth or online at voicesfromtheheart.org. Pre-purchased tickets are $10 and tickets at the door $12.  Please call “Voices” at 207-451-9346 with any questions. (courtesy photo)

New Smuttynose Island Exhibit Reveals Hidden History

(photo courtesy Portsmouth Marine Society)

PORTSMOUTH –

The long-buried secrets of Smuttynose Island are revealed this summer in a surprising new exhibit at Discover Portsmouth, the city’s new downtown visitor center. “Under the Isles of Shoals” features artifacts unearthed in recent years by archaeology professor Nathan Hamilton and his students. Hamilton created the exhibit with historian J. Dennis Robinson who has written a companion book about the historic “dig” that continues this summer at the Isles of Shoals. The exhibit is free to the public and open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from May through August 31.

 “If you think you know the Isles of Shoals, think again,” says Maryellen Burke, executive director of Discover Portsmouth. The 1810-era brick buildings, formerly the city library, have just undergone a $1 million renovation. “Dr. Hamilton’s research is literally rewriting history,” Burke says, “and you can only see it here.”

While legend claimed, for example, that Native Americans did not visit the Isles of Shoals 10 miles out to sea from Portsmouth, Hamilton’s researchers discovered six prehistoric occupations dating as far back as 6,000 years ago. Working from the Shoals Marine Lab on Appledore Island, Hamilton’s diggers also found evidence of an ancient tavern littered with thousands of clay pipe fragments dating to the 1620s. Archaeologists also turned up the remains of “great cod” that once weighed 120 pounds.

“We explore the same two acres of Smuttynose Island through five very different periods of time,” says co-curator Robinson. Once a thriving “fish factory” with hundreds of men in the late 1600s, Robinson says, the island was all but abandoned during the American Revolution.  Then in the early 1800s Smuttynose was the site of the first major hotel at the Isles of Shoals, ushering in the seacoast tourism industry that continues today.

Signed copies of Robinson’s book Under the Isles of Shoals: Archaeology & Discovery on Smuttynose Island will be available in the Discover Center gift shop. The colorful new book published by the Portsmouth Marine Society features over 180 photographs and illustrations in 176 pages.

In addition to historic artifacts, the book and exhibit feature five original illustrations by seacoast artist Bill Paarlberg. The exhibit also includes multiple slide presentations, scientific charts, a video of the diggers at work, and what Robinson calls “cool big stuff for kids.” The large objects on display include a dugout and a birch bark canoe, reconstructed “fish flakes” used to dry Atlantic cod, and a replica of the porch of the 1846 Mid-Ocean House of Entertainment that once stood on Smuttynose Island.

“You can have your picture taken at an ancient island hotel without leaving the building,” Burke says. “And you might even see a famous Smuttynose murder weapon if you look closely.”

Visitors can view Indian stone tools, rare coins, imported ceramics, early glassware, and the bones of fish and animals. Evidence shows that original settlers ate a wide variety of birds including loon, gull, duck, hawk, and the now-extinct “great auk,” a flightless bird related to the puffin. Remains of seashells from Smuttynose may help unlock the traffic patterns of colonial shipping and offer clues to global climate change. 

Sponsors of the exhibit include Smuttynose Brewing Company, SeacoastNH.com, Optima Bank, Shoals Marine Lab, Treehouse Toys, CleareyePhoto.com, Speedpro Imaging, Isles of Shoals Steamship Company, Martha Fuller Clark and Jeff Clark, Island Cruises, Independent Archaeological Consulting and Portsmouth Harbor Cruises.

The exhibit is a production of the Portsmouth Historical Society that also owns and operates the John Paul Jones House Museum nearby. The visitor center is located at the corner of Middle and Islington streets downtown. For more information on group tours, special events, and lectures contact Discover Portsmouth at 603-436-8433 or visit www.PortsmouthHistory.org.

Seven Historic Homes Open Doors for Free

PORTSMOUTH - For more than one hundred years, Historic New England has served as the region's storyteller, opening its doors to share four centuries of New England home and family life.  Historic New England celebrates the 2012 season by welcoming visitors free of charge to seven historic sites in the Piscataqua region of New Hampshire and Maine on Saturday, June 2, and Sunday, June 3. 

Travel ten miles and be transported through three centuries of New England’s history.  Discover Jackson House, the oldest surviving wooden frame home in New Hampshire, stop by Hamilton House to see its murals depicting Piscataqua’s glittering past, visit Rundlet-May House to find out what an early 1800’s high-tech kitchen looked like, and tour Lost Gardens of New England inside the Gov. John Langdon House, then step outside and enjoy the perennial flower beds and rose and grape arbor.

These seven house museums offer free tours on June 2 and June 3, 2012. All tours are first-come, first-served. Tours will begin at 11 a.m. and the last tour will start at 4 p.m.

New Hampshire:

Gilman Garrison House, Exeter, 1709

Jackson House, Portsmouth, 1664

Governor John Langdon House, Portsmouth, 1784

Rundlet-May House, Portsmouth, 1807

Maine:

Hamilton House, South Berwick, c. 1785

Sarah Orne Jewett House, South Berwick, 1774

Sayward-Wheeler House, York harbor, c. 1718

More information on Historic New England’s Open House can be found by visiting www.historicnewengland.org and click on Open House under the Events tab. 

Partnership created to conserve water and reduce pollution

PORTSMOUTH - Hodgson Brook Restoration Project and Great Bay Community College has partnered with the Great American Rain Barrel Company to offer rain barrels to area residents at a discount to help conserve water, reduce pollution and save homeowners money. 

Each UV protected polyethylene rain barrel is manufactured in the USA from a recycled shipping drum that stands 39" tall by 24" wide and weighs 20 lbs. empty with a wall thickness of 3/16", resulting in a rigid, heavy duty rain barrel that will last virtually forever. The barrel comes complete with overflow fittings, drain plug, screw on cover, and a threaded spigot with a choice of two ports to use with either a watering can or a garden hose. The rain barrel arrives with simple instructions for fast and easy installation.  The Great American Rain Barrel is offered in three colors; Forest Green, Earth Brown or Nantucket Gray at the low cost of $68 versus the retail price of $119.

To take advantage of this program discount please go to: www.greatamericanrainbarrel.com  and order under the Hodgson Brook Community Program link. Or email info@tgarb.com  or call (800)251-2352.

 Deadline for ordering is 5 p.m. on May 25 and orders can be picked up at Great Bay Community College on Friday, June 1 from 3 to 5 p.m. or Saturday morning June 2  between 9 to 11 a.m.

Why use rain barrels? Rain barrels reduce runoff.  Rain landing on rooftops, driveways and roads can pick up and carry pollutants into local streams and rivers. Over time this takes a toll on the fragile ecosystems that our native plant and animal communities are dependent on. Water shortage is also a growing global concern.  In New England residential water usage can increase as much as 60 percent during the spring, summer and fall seasons from outdoor watering needs such as watering gardens, lawns, filling pools and, washing cars. Barrels can offset that usage; saving homeowner’s money and helping our local communities manage water supplies. 

Funding for this project is provided in part by a Watershed Assistance Grant from the NH Department of Environmental Services with Clean Water Act Section 319 funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and through partnerships with Great Bay Community College, the city of Portsmouth and the University of New Hampshire. Additional support comes through generous donations from the Port Inn, Tighe & Bond Engineering, Newmarket International   and Rolling Green Nursery.  The Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation acts as fiscal agent for the Hodgson Brook Project. (courtesy photo)

Old North End on Digital Display at Portsmouth Public Library

By Timothy Gillis

PORTSMOUTH –

May is Preservation Month, and central to the celebration is the North End project, a combined effort of the Portsmouth Public Library, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and the Seacoast Lodge #2303 of the Sons of Italy. The partners will present their efforts to the public on May 21, at 7 p.m. in the Levenson Room of the library. They hope to show the public how to make their way around the project's website, www.portsmouthexhibits.org.

Representatives from the project will give a talk about their collection of images and personal stories from the section of town known as the North End, and the Hill.

The speakers will include Tom Hardiman, director of Portsmouth Athenaeum, Valerie Capodelupo Koloshey, and Judy Capobianco from the Lodge, and Sherm Pridham, retired city librarian who is leading their digital efforts as a volunteer. The group will speak about the project and demonstrate how to use the Athenaeum's website to explore the digital exhibit.
Last October, for Italian National Heritage month, Koloshey said she wanted to do displays of photographs at local libraries. She went to Portsmouth Library, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and the Portsmouth Historical Society. They had next-to nothing, she said. “I decided to gather photos and stories. It's not just the homes that were lost, but a way of life too.”
The homes she refers to were those that were condemned in 1966, as part of the city’s Urban Renewal Plan. The homes were bought by imminent domain, in 1969, and then demolished in 1969 and 1970.
Phase 1 of the project is the call for photos and keepsakes of the North End. That part has been largely successful, with many images pouring in. They have not collected keepsakes or artifacts yet, Koloshey said, and the collection of images goes on, with at least 200 more expected.

Phase 2 is the videotaping of the personal stories of folks who lived in North End. “We will interview them, and hope to do so in their homes, as many of them are elderly,” Koloshey said.

The interview process starts with the same basic questions - family name, where they are from in Italy, what they did to earn their living in the North End. “We start with similar questions, but then give them leeway to tell their own stories,” Koloshey said. “We have hundreds of photos coming in.”
Phase 3 is the website. “We try to combine with Portsmouth Public Library so we don't duplicate efforts,” said Tom Hardiman,
“Because urban renewal in the 1960’s was done with federal money, new developments have to go through a 106 Review, which requires archaeological testing,” Hardiman said. “There are extra costs associated with that. If they find anything, it could slow down or derail the project.”
The old North End neighborhood had Italian markets, bakeries, cobbler shops, and restaurants, he said. Then an A & P came in, then the Portwalk Hotel and Condo. “When a Sheraton hotel was built in the 1980's, there was an extensive archaeological dig. The hotel incorporates little exhibits in the hotel from the 18th century,” he said.
“First large-scale project for the Athenaeum that is all digital," Hardiman said. “So we're able to scan the photos and give the originals back to the families.” (photo by Tim Gillis)