Strawbery Banke Museum

Strawbery Banke is unique among outdoor history museums in presenting a complete neighborhood’s evolution over 300 years, with most of the historic houses on their original foundations. These structures link visitors to the people who lived on the Portsmouth waterfront from 1695 to 1954. Costumed roleplayers and traditional craftspeople recreate the lives, concerns, and challenges of families in the community, basing their interpretations on diaries, letters, historical records, archaeology, and collected artifacts.

The first settlers in 1623 called their new home Strawbery Banke, and today, the ten-acre Strawbery Banke Museum preserves houses from four centuries of the old Puddle Dock neighborhood beside the harbor. Some are preserved to show their construction and the process of restoration, others are furnished to represent a period in their history, and others are "inhabited" by costumed interpreters who tell their stories through demonstrations and daily activities. Together the houses show life at various periods and of the different ethnic groups who lived here. You can see a neighborhood market from the World War II era, watch as authentic Gundalow boats are built, stroll in period gardens, and tour the elegant home of a former governor.