Category Archives: History

Presidents Day & Update

Portsmouth, NH

Considering the fact that I lived in New England for 23 years, I don’t remember venturing to Portsmouth. The “beach” I knew was in Maine however last weekend I found myself in a little city that had completely captured my attention and my imagination. I think it really hit me when I saw a sign that said “Portsmouth Settled 1623”. Now – that’s old!

First, I really need to tell you that if you love history that you need to venture to Portsmouth. It is amazing and it just makes me want to explore the history of the area. Portsmouth sits right on the Atlantic coast and holds a huge harbor that has been used for hundreds of years (literally hundreds of years) as a major point of imports and exports and holds an extensive volume of history.

There are many historical homes in the area. This is one of them – The Warner House. It is one of the earliest, brick urban mansions in the area – built in 1716 for a Captain who married the Governor’s daughter.

I was told by my “tour guide” that this is the town library (above). Kinda makes you want to just read about the library.

Old homes and narrow roads.

Some of the earliest settlers in the area were those who were exiled Puritans from Massachusetts. In 1774, Paul Revere was said to have ridden thru the town to warn that “the British are coming!”. This area holds history including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, do I really need to go on here?! Following the Civil War, beer and ale became quite the popular industry in the area. Even today, this area holds some of the largest ale makers. Walking thru the area you cannot help but allow your mind to wander back to hundreds of years ago and wonder what this area was like, or did it really even look that different? (Obviously, in the 1700’s there were none of these ugly telephone poles!)

I absolutely love this street. Looks unreal.

So I had made my way into Portsmouth and was completely flabbergasted by my surroundings. These buildings were ancient yet they were beautiful and so well kept. This was a real life museum where people lived, worked and wondered daily and today I was lucky enough to be one of them. After living in Texas for almost four years, I’ve missed how much history New England holds. This was like the cherry on top.

After having lunch with a couple friends from high school, we walked around a bit and checked out our surroundings. Here are a few other things that caught my, or our, eyes.

I’m going to say one of the coolest doors in New England. Yea – I said it.

We walked down by the water. Here are the tugboats and the big ole pile of salt that has been shipped in to help with the icy, snowy roads. This is January and there is not a drop of ice or sand. It felt like spring.

Now if anyone is in need of a new bridge… my tour guide informed me this is for sale for $3 million. You can bring it to your town or even your back yard if you want. It’s currently being worked on, obviously.

Ah! And here we are! Long awaited visit with some awesome people. Cody and my tour guide, Chris.

Now, for your interesting fact of the day. What Chris is pointing to here is the Portsmouth Naval Prison. Legend has it, according to my tour guide Chris and a port tour that he took is that years ago, Walt Disney was at the prison (with a little research, he was said to be a guard here) and while in a boat, he came around the bend and saw the prison and thus the inspiration to Cinderella’s castle was born.

If you ever find yourself wanting to do a little historic tour of a New England coastal town – I’m going to say Portsmouth is the place! I think the next time I visit, I’m definitely going to have to try to get into the nitty gritty of some of the historical buildings and area a bit more.

If you’ve been or even end up going, I would love to hear what you though!

For more info on the area, check out Portsmouth’s Website.

Champlain College – Perry Hall

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About five years ago, I graduated from Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. It is by far the best decision that I have ever made in my ENTIRE life. Looking back, it was one of the greatest times of my life. I worked in the Student Life Office and in the Residential Life Department, loved the faculty that taught my classes and I make it a point to go back and visit just about every time I go home to Vermont.

When I was home in September, I set aside an afternoon to go visit campus. There has been a lot that has happened in the past five years since I’ve graduated, even more if I look back to what it was like my freshman year. Before I headed home, I had contacted my old boss in the Student Life office (more on her in a post to come) and asked if she could give me a tour. “Of Course” was the response. I was pretty excited.

To provide a bit of background, the below picture (May 2009) is the Perry Hall that I knew when I attended Champlain. I lived in a dorm across the street and a few of us would go over and play softball in the HUGE yard behind the house. Oh how it has changed.

Meet the new (front – top, back – below) Perry Hall after an estimated $15 million dollar restoration and preservation project. Perry Hall is named after Roger Perry, a former President of the College. It’s amazing what a bit of construction can do to a place. Although the building has a modern feel, the original architecture has been maintained throughout. Something Champlain does extremely well. Have I mentioned the majority of the dorms are converted Victorian homes? It’s one of the top key features that attracted me to the school.

Behind Perry Hall you will find what use to be the stables. Now it is a lab for the graphic design students.

This is a view, a very bad view, from the inside of Perry Hall, kind of overlooking the backyard. They’ve put in these great wooden rockers so you can relax, sit back and just check out the scenery. You can kind of see the lake on the left center side of the below picture. This was a rainy day but on a clear perfect day you can really see Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks on the New York side.

On the far end of the back yard there is also a water reservoir. The building also hosts energy efficient climate control systems and geo-thermal pump. It’s all in an effort to receive an Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

Inside of the building was beautiful. The architecture and details are really accentuated in the rooms.

Look at the wood crafting that was put into the main house. The doors and floors are absolutely beautiful. I wish I could have detail like this in a house of my own someday.

That is William Shakespeare in the middle of the fireplace mantle. Take note of the marble in front. .

Finally. I think I could’ve spent a lot more time in this room if I could have, and if I would have permission to go thru everything in the cabinets. This is the museum room. It contains history about the building, Burlington and the previous home owners.

It’s really nice to see what has been done on campus and to get a feel of the upcoming construction that is being done. It’s incredible to see what has been done with Perry Hall. The building now contains numerous offices which cater specifically to prospective and current students which I personally would find to be an incredible convenience. (If I remember correctly this includes Admissions, Financial Aid, Student Account and Advising and Registration). It use to be such a pain going all over campus to these offices, now, all the current students are a little spoiled. 🙂

Have any other graduates had a chance to visit campus lately? What’d you think?