CHANGING SCENES OF PORTSMOUTH Ten Pleasant Street Through Time Turn of the 20th Century (Click to see building site today) PORTSMOUTH GROCERY STORES An earlier building, now demolished, at the site of today's Ten Pleasant Street, one of the few new buildings constructed in the Market Square area, showing City Market and Carter & Benfield. Two lawyers and an insurance office are on the second floor. The photo shows storekeepers, a passerby and three girls. Magnified details show products including Bon Ami, Atlas Flour, Turner Center Creamery Butter, watermelons, apples. A poster in the window announces a baseball game between Portsmouth and York. Today the new building features a bakery and specialty foods shop. (Photo courtesy of the Portsmouth Athenaeum) Click to see LARGER version and details AN OLD POST CARD Actually this old postcard shows Pleasant Street with a view toward Market Square. The old Ten Pleasant Street location is clearly visible between the Post Office (Custom House) and the North Church. The drug store on the right is now the Rusty Hammer restaurant. The Portsmouth Athenaeum can be seen in the background. GURNEY'S GUIDE This earlier photo from Caleb Gurney's detailed 1902 "Guide to Portsmouth" shows the Old Post Office (Custom House) clearly on Pleasant Street with the small store building following. A nearly identical building remains just down the road at 88 Pleasant Street where the author's business was first located. By continuing the tour, you will see how similar the new brick building looks today, part of the city's plan to retain a historical link between old and new architecture. (Courtesy Portsmouth Public Library) ANOTHER OLD POST CARD Here's a similar clearer view. We went down to this spot and took a photo nearly 100 years later. Here's what it looks like today. Continue to tour and see. MORE PICTURES of Ten Pleasant © 1999 SeacoastNH.com Postcards from SeacoastNH Image Library

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