June 5, 2022 – The tour was fully booked as visitors joined us for a walking tour to see the beautiful Melville Park and learn its extensive history! Melville Park is part of the Melville Recreation Area which covers 153 acres. This Town property is dominated by a brook, numerous ponds, a waterfall, a valley […]

May 29, 2022 – After nearly three years of COVID restrictions, the Main Museum was re-opened

May 13, 2022 – The Newport Navy Choristers, under the direction of Lori McDowell, presented their annual Spring concert, “Proudly We Sing” on Friday, May 13, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Barnabas Church,  Proceeds from the concert benefitwd the Portsmouth Historical Society.

May 25, 2022 – PHS Hosted PBA Business After Hours and Members-Only Reception and Soft Opening Museum “Sneak Peek” PHS hosted the first post=pandemic Portsmouth Business Association “Business After Hours” and also welcomed back PHS Members during a members-only reception at the museum.

May 6, 2022. Anne Northup Burns, President, was the featured guest on Portsmouth This Week.

Saturday May 7, 2022 – PHS Members got together to do a major cleanup of the Old Town Hall. Many items were transferred to a rented ‘POD’ and the Town Hal was cleaned and vacuumed and major exhibits re-positioned.

April 30, 2022 – Stephen Luce of the Portsmouth Historical Society lead a tour and discussion of four cemeteries in Lawton Valley.  First was a visit to the stone cellar hole. It was the home for many of those interred nearby. Next was a walk to, ostensibly. the “oldest” cemetery. It was just recorded last year and

March 23, 2022. Another of the “Gentlemen’s Farms” in the southern part Portsmouth at the beginning of the 20th century was Sandy Point Farm. It was purchased in 1902 by Reginald Vanderbilt. Reginald was the youngest son of Cornelius and Alice Vanderbilt of the Breakers and the brother of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt who had a

March 19, 2022 – Lecture “Portsmouth Library 125th” by Jim Garman Portsmouth Free Public Library grew from a group of people called the Thursday Evening Group who met at the Guild House of St. Paul’s Church and at members’ homes to discuss literature and culture.  It was proposed that a meeting be held to explore

The Town and PHS celebrated Founders’ Day Showing the Portsmouth 1638 Compact and Southwick Declaration of Independence The Portsmouth Historical Society arranged a public viewing of the original 1638 Portsmouth Compact with the RI State Archives. they do this each year in March to commemorate its signing. An archivist with State Police escort carried this