Portsmouth Historical Society
Portsmouth Historical Society (c) 2022; 870 East Main Road (at Union St), PO Box 834, Portsmouth, RI 02871

What’s Been Going On?

Friends Meeting House Open House Saturday November 13

The Portsmouth Friends Meetinghouse, Parsonage, and Cemetery (also known as Portsmouth Friends Meeting House or Portsmouth Evangelical Friends Church) is a historic Friends Meeting House and cemetery of the Religious...

Lecture “Oakland Farm: A Gentleman’s Farm” November 3rd, 2021

In the late 19th century a number of “Gentleman’s Farms” were created in South Portsmouth including Glen Farm, Sandy Point Farm, Oakland Farm, and others.             These were extensive farms...

Halloween 2021 – Tandem Story Tellers

On Halloween (October 31st 2021) Take Two Tandem Tellers hosted families in costumes! The Portsmouth Community Theater and The Portsmouth Historical Society presented a family friendly program of seasonal stories...

Kevin Fennessey Concert Oct 30, 2021

A concert was given by Kevin Fennessey (of Portsmouth, RI) on October 30, 2021 at 7 PM at the Common Fence Point Community Center with proceeds going to the Society....

Glen Farm Millhouse Members’ Open House Oct 17, 2021

Members of the Portsmouth Historical Society were invited to an Open House by Jonathan and Erin Chapman, owners of the Glen Farm Millhouse at 120 Glen Farm Rd, Portsmouth. The...

Mother-Daughter Activists of the 19th/20th Centuries:

Lecture “Mother-Daughter Activists of the 19th/20th Centuries: Julia Ward Howe & Maud Howe Elliott” by Nancy Whipple Grinnell and Fred ZilianJulia Ward Howe is best remembered for writing “The Battle...

Lawton Valley Cemetery Tour – Oct 2, 2021

A tour was led by Stephen Luce at three cemeteries in Lawton Valley! First visited was the stone cellar hole. This was the home for many of those interred nearby....

Book Club Sept 22, 2021

“Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul” by John M. Barry. Anne Wagner served as a thought-provoking moderator for the forum.  Copies of the book are still available...

Glen Farm Lecture Sept 14

Glen Farm: A Gentleman’s Farm Lecture by Town Historian Jim Garman Local Historian Jim Garman gave a presentation on one of the most historically-significant “Gentlemen’s Farms” in Portsmouth’s history. In...

Butt Hill Fort Cleanup Sep 12

The Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee is amassed volunteers to continue the removal of vegetation which currently obscures and prevents access to this Revolutionary War earthwork, the largest in southern...