Tag: Deer Street

On The Hill

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The Norther Tier of Portsmouth is an interesting and changing place.  The neighborhood known as The Hill sits atop this part of town in the block between Deer Street and Hanover Street, and is filled with older historic homes from the area that were saved from the urban renewal efforts that saw hundreds of homes torn down to make way for the former Parade Mall (soon to be Portwalk Place).  It’s an interesting spot and ensures that this part of town will always have some historic character amidst the larger brick buildings that now include the Residence Inn and the Sheraton and will soon include more residences as part of the progress of the Portwalk Place project. The brick driveways and pastels of the clapboards are a nice part of the rich historic fabric of our charming town. (don’t miss the crescent moon hovering over the chimney at center frame)

At Deer & Market Street

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The corner of Deer Street & Market Street must be one of the busiest intersections in town – right up there with Congress & Market and Congress/Middle/Islington/Maplewood.  It’s a great place to stand and watch cars travel into/out of town (although it’s not always the best spot to drive or to try and cross the street).

I love this spot – as the street narrows down as you follow the white line and head up Market Street into the heart of downtown, you feel like you’re arriving somewhere.  I love the curve of the road and how the commerce of Deer Street meets the old architecture of the building to the left with its stepped roofline, and how directly to my left (from where this photo was taken), is the entrance to Granite State Minerals where trucks carry sand & salt throughout New England during the winter.

The city’s newly rebuilt pumphouse that stands at the corner of the streets (center frame) is even pretty fancy, with the beautiful granite “Welcome To Portsmouth” sign.

Construction in the City | North End Edition

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The Norther Tier continues to change as the construction at two noteworthy projects progresses.  Above, the Residence Inn at Portwalk Place can be seen from Deer Street.  As you can see, the building went up incredibly fast (see other progress photos HERE), and has much of its outer brickwork complete.  I’m not aware of the projected opening yet, but I can’t imagine that it’s too far off.  Foster’s ran an article this week about the prospect of the City of Portsmouth operating a surface parking lot on the excess land at the site until the development market picks up and the office/retail component of the Portwalk Project can be built (and leased out).

Below, the Portsmouth Herald is getting a facelift as well and is being converted to retail/office uses. Below the photo are renderings of the completed buildings, which were kindly provided by Ron Reilly of Reilly Studios in Portsmouth, who worked on this project with DeStefano Architects. In the second rendering, you can see a parking garage that is slated to be built sometime in the future as part of the Westin project.