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Strawbery Banke Box LbNA #45275

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Dec 28, 2008
Location:
City:Portsmouth
County:Rockingham
State:New Hampshire
Boxes:1
Planted by:deadowls
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Last edited:Dec 28, 2008
Letterbox History:


Strawbery Banke is located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This is a place where you can visit historical houses and tour them. It's basically an outdoor museum. Strawbery Banke is one of the main historical sites in the state because it was the first and oldest neighborhood to be settled by Europeans. It features more than 40 restored buildings built between the 17th and 19th century.
Strawbery Banke's history goes all the way back to 1630. Captain Walter Neal and his English men chose the area to build the settlement and named it after the wild berries growing along the Piscataqua River. As early as 1631 some wives had arrived and by 1640 and approximately 170 people were living and working in this community on the Piscataqua. Strawbery Banke existed as a neighborhood for four centuries, from 1630 to the late 1950's. The purpose of settling in this area was for economic reasons, not religious.
The bankruptcy of the Laconia Company in 1638 left the settlement without any legal authority so the settlers at Strawbery Banke drew up a mutual covenant for orderly government and declared their allegiance to the King and English law. They soon found, however, that their compact was not sufficient to solve local disputes and that laws were difficult to enforce.
The war of 1812 did not provide a great opportunity in trade since merchant ships were being preyed upon. The timber in the Piscataqua region had been greatly depleted by the early 1800s. The lumber products from the very beginning of settlement had been Portsmouth's key export, were no longer available to fill the holds of trading vessels.