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Counting House Museum
Photo courtesy of
Old berwick Historical.
The museum is a repository for over 6000 documents, photographs and historical curiosities covering a wide spectrum of community life in South Coast, Maine. Exhibits include gundalow models and relics, as well as artifacts from the 17th century Humphrey Chadbourne Homesite. Volunteers maintain the collection as a research center. The museum is located in an early counting house building. In 1831, New Hampshire native Samuel Hale gathered investors to purchase the water rights at Quamphegan Falls at the head of navigation on the Piscataqua/Salmon Falls Rivers, ten miles up from Portsmouth at a site served by the gundalows. The 275-foot dam with its 19-foot pitch held promise for water-powered machinery of the industrial revolution. Within a few years, the Portsmouth Manufacturing Company's four-story brick textile mill was built on the Maine side of the river, along with a Greek Revival-style corporate office, the Counting House. Today the Counting House is a regional treasure containing one of northern New England's last
textile mill ballrooms. The museum offers a series of speakers and walking tours. Comtact the Old Berwick historical Society for details and membership info.
HOURS: Saturday and Sunday 1-4 pm Jul - Sep, and by appointment
WEBSITE: http://www.obhs.net/
ADMISSION: Free (donations welcome)
PHONE: (207) 384-0000
ADDRESS: PO Box 296 South Berwick, ME 03802
DIRECTIONS: From Portsmouth take I-95 north across Piscataqua River. At
Exit 3 take Rte. 236 north ten miles to stop sign in South Berwick. Left on
Rte. 4 (Main St.). Counting House is two blocks on left at corner of Main
and Liberty Streets by the falls and the NH border.
LINKS:
Our Photo Web Page,
Listing sponsored by
Peter E Randall Publisher, (603) 431-5667,
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