26 Sights in Portsmouth, United States (with Map and Images)

Downtown Portsmouth Historic District, also known as the High Street Corridor Historic District, is a national historic district located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It encompasses 229 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, 4 contributing structures, and 1 contributing object in the central business district of Portsmouth. The district encompasses the original 1752 plan of the Town of Portsmouth and includes portions of expansions of the original boundaries dating to 1763 and 1909. It includes a variety of commercial, government, and institutional buildings, with most dating to the years around the turn of the 20th century. Notable buildings include the Captain Baird House, Vermillion Manor (1840), City Hall Building (1878), former United States Post Office (1907-1908), First Presbyterian Church (1877), First United Methodist Churches (1882), St. James Episcopal Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, YMCA building, Tidewater Building, Southern Aid Building, Colony Theater, Lyric Theater, Blumberg's Department Store, Mutual Drug Company (1946), the New Kirn Building, and the Professional Building. Separately listed are the Commodore Theatre, Portsmouth Courthouse, Pythian Castle, St. Paul's Catholic Church, and Trinity Episcopal Church

Wikipedia: Downtown Portsmouth Historic District (EN)

The Governor John Langdon House, also known as Governor John Langdon Mansion, is a historic mansion house at 143 Pleasant Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. It was built in 1784 by Founding Father John Langdon (1741-1819), a merchant, shipbuilder, American Revolutionary War general, signer of the United States Constitution, and three-term President of New Hampshire. The house he built for his family showed his status as Portsmouth's leading citizen and received praise from George Washington, who visited there in 1789. Its reception rooms are ornamented by elaborate wood carving in the rococo style. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974, and is now a house museum operated by Historic New England.

Wikipedia: Governor John Langdon House (EN)

Shea Terrace Elementary School is a historic school building located in Portsmouth, Virginia. The structure was built in 1925 based on a design by noted Virginia architect Charles M. Robinson. The school opened in September 1925 serving Portsmouth's Shea Terrace neighborhood. In a 2002 submission to have the structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Virginia Department of Historical Resources noted the structure's association with Charles M. Robinson: "He is one of the most important Virginia architects of this period and his approach to school design and campus master planning continues to exert an influence today." The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Wikipedia: Shea Terrace Elementary School (EN)

Portsmouth Olde Towne Historic District, is a national historic district located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It encompasses 89 buildings. It is located in the primarily residential section of Portsmouth and includes a notable collection of Federal and Greek Revival style townhouses, known as "basement houses." Other notable buildings include the Watts House (1799), Grice-Neeley House, Ball-Nivison House (1752), Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1857), St. John's Episcopal Church (1898), Court Street Baptist Church (1901-1903), and Union Machinist Home. Located in the district is the separately listed Monumental Methodist Church.

Wikipedia: Portsmouth Olde Towne Historic District (EN)

Hog Island Shoal Light, built in 1901, is a sparkplug lighthouse on a shoal off of Hog Island, Rhode Island. It is located about 600 feet (180 m) southeast of the island, at the entrance to Mount Hope Bay. It stands on a circular concrete foundation set in about 10 feet (3.0 m) of water, and rising about 6 feet (1.8 m) above the water line. It was built to replace a light ship, and was the last light station formally established in the state. The lighthouse was automated in 1964. In 1988 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006 the lighthouse was auctioned by the GSA as government surplus to a private buyer.

Wikipedia: Hog Island Shoal Light (EN)

Truxtun Historic District is a national historic district located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It encompasses 241 contributing buildings in a primarily residential section of Portsmouth. It was developed between 1918 and 1920 as a planned community of Colonial Revival style single family residences. It was developed by the United States Housing Corporation as a result of the rapid influx of workers at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard during World War I. It was the first wartime government housing project constructed exclusively for African-American residents. In 1921 the Federal Government sold it off.

Wikipedia: Truxtun Historic District (EN)

Strawbery Banke is an outdoor history museum located in the South End historic district of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is the oldest neighborhood in New Hampshire to be settled by Europeans, and the earliest neighborhood remaining in the present-day city of Portsmouth. It features more than 37 restored buildings built between the 17th and 19th centuries in the Colonial, Georgian, and Federal style architectures. The buildings once clustered around a waterway known as Puddle Dock, which was filled in around 1900. Today the former waterway appears as a large open space.

Wikipedia: Strawbery Banke (EN), Website

Seaboard Coastline Building, also known as Old City Hall, is a historic train station located at Portsmouth, Virginia. The original section was built in 1894-1895 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. It is a six-story brick and concrete structure, with the 4th and 5th floors added in 1914. The front facade features a distinctive half-round or semicylindrical profile intended to recall the imagery of the streamlined locomotives of the late-19th century. The building served as the northern terminus and office headquarters of the Seaboard Air Line until 1958.

Wikipedia: Seaboard Coastline Building (EN)

The Children's Museum of Virginia is the largest children's museum in the state of Virginia. It is located in Olde Town Portsmouth at 221 High Street. The museum has a planetarium and two floors of exhibits. Its antique toy and model train collection is one of the largest on the East Coast. Highlights of the museum include a life-size tug boat and house, as well as a real Hampton Roads Transit bus, the cab of a real fire truck from the Portsmouth Fire Department, and a real motorcycle from the Portsmouth Police Department.

Wikipedia: Children's Museum of Virginia (EN), Website

Cradock Historic District is a national historic district located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It encompasses 759 contributing buildings and 1 contributing structure in a primarily residential section of Portsmouth. It was developed starting in 1918, as a planned community of Colonial Revival and Bungalow style single family residences. It was developed by the United States Housing Corporation as a result of the rapid influx of workers at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard during World War I.

Wikipedia: Cradock Historic District (EN)

The Moffatt-Ladd House, also known as the William Whipple House, is a historic house museum and National Historic Landmark in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. The 1763 Georgian house was the home of William Whipple (1730–1785), a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War general. The house is now owned by the National Society of Colonial Dames in New Hampshire, and is open to the public.

Wikipedia: Moffatt-Ladd House (EN)

The Hog Island Light was a lighthouse roughly marking its eponymous island, and thus the north side of the Great Machipongo Inlet on the Virginia coast. Originally, no light existed between Cape Henlopen, Delaware and Cape Charles. In 1830 the United States Congress appropriated money for a coastal beacon in the general vicinity of Chincoteague Island. The following year, the Collector of Customs in Norfolk selected Assateague Island.

Wikipedia: Hog Island Light (EN)

St. Paul's Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church located in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States. It is a compact Gothic Revival style, cruciform plan church. It is constructed of load-bearing masonry walls clad in quarry-faced granite. The church was designed by John Peebles (1876-1934) in 1897, and dedicated in 1905. It is the fifth church on the site. Also on the property is a contributing rectory constructed in 1913.

Wikipedia: St. Paul's Catholic Church (Portsmouth, Virginia) (EN)

The Warner House, formerly known as the MacPheadris–Warner House, is a historic house museum at 150 Daniel Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States. Built 1716–1718, it is the oldest, urban brick house in northern New England, and is one of the finest early-Georgian brick houses in New England. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wikipedia: MacPheadris–Warner House (EN)

United States Lightship 101, now known as Portsmouth as a museum ship, was first stationed at Cape Charles, Virginia. Today she is at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum in Portsmouth, Virginia. Portsmouth never had a lightship station; however, when the vessel was dry docked there as a museum, she took on the pseudonym Portsmouth. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of a small number of surviving lightships.

Wikipedia: United States lightship Portsmouth (LV-101) (EN), Website, Heritage Website

Commodore Theatre is an historic movie theater located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It was built in 1945 in the Streamline Art Deco style, and originally sat 1,000 people. The theater closed in 1975 and sat empty until a change in ownership and extensive renovation beginning in 1987. It reopened two years later, and as of 2023 was in operation displaying first-run films accompanied by a full kitchen.

Wikipedia: Commodore Theatre (EN), Website

Port Norfolk Historic District is a national historic district located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It encompasses 621 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site in a primarily residential section of suburban Portsmouth. It was developed between about 1890 and 1910, and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow / American Craftsman, and American Foursquare style single family residences.

Wikipedia: Port Norfolk Historic District (EN)

Monumental United Methodist Church, formerly known as Dinwiddie Street Methodist Church, is a historic Methodist church located in Portsmouth, Virginia. It is a five-bay brick and stucco, Victorian Gothic style church. It is features a 182 feet tall, two part central tower. The church was built between 1871 and 1876 on the foundations of an earlier 1831 building that had burned in 1864.

Wikipedia: Monumental Methodist Church (EN)

Drydock Number One is the oldest operational drydock facility in the United States. Located in Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, it was put into service in 1834, and has been in service since then. Its history includes the refitting of USS Merrimack, which was modified to be the Confederate Navy ironclad CSS Virginia. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

Wikipedia: Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard (EN), Heritage Website

The John Paul Jones House is a historic house at 43 Middle Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Now a historic house museum and a National Historic Landmark, it is where American Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones, resided from 1781 to 1782 when it was operated as a boarding house. He also lived in a home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Caroline Street, owned by his brother.

Wikipedia: John Paul Jones House (EN)

USS Albacore (AGSS-569) is a unique research submarine that pioneered the American version of the teardrop hull form of modern submarines. The revolutionary design was derived from extensive hydrodynamic and wind tunnel testing, with an emphasis on underwater speed and maneuverability. She was the third vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the albacore.

Wikipedia: USS Albacore (AGSS-569) (EN), Website

The Richard Jackson House is a historic house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Built in 1664 by Richard Jackson, it is the oldest wood-frame house in New Hampshire. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968. It is now a historic house museum owned by Historic New England, and is open two Saturdays a month between June and October.

Wikipedia: Richard Jackson House (EN), Opening Hours

The Prudence Island Lighthouse, more commonly known locally as the Sandy Point Lighthouse, is located on Prudence Island, Rhode Island and is the oldest lighthouse tower in the state. Sandy Point is nicknamed Chibacoweda, meaning "little place separated by a passage", because the location is a little more than one mile offshore.

Wikipedia: Prudence Island Light (EN)

Trinity Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located in Portsmouth, Virginia. It was built between 1828 and 1830, and is a stuccoed brick building. It has an attached bell tower. Also on the property is the contributing parish house, built in 1887. During the American Civil War, the church was used as a hospital.

Wikipedia: Trinity Episcopal Church (Portsmouth, Virginia) (EN)

South Parish is the historic name of a church at 292 State Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the United States. The church building, built in 1824-26, is one of the earliest examples of Classical Revival architecture in New England, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Wikipedia: South Parish (EN), Website

The Musselbed Shoals Light was a lighthouse which once stood in Narragansett Bay at the west entrance to Mount Hope Bay, south of Bristol Point. As with many Rhode Island lights, it was a casualty of the New England Hurricane of 1938.

Wikipedia: Musselbed Shoals Light (EN)