EDI-Special Project No. B-05-SP-NH-0171 NEW HAMPSHIRE’S FIRST STATE HOUSE PLANNING PROJECT FINAL REPORT Model depicting the existing 18th-century elements of New Hampshire’s First State House. TMS Architects Laura S. Black New Hampshire Department of Cultural Resources Division of Historical Resources Concord, New Hampshire U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development September 2012 CONTENTS Page CONTENTS i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 PROJECT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY 2 PROJECT GOALS 2 PROJECT PROGRESS 3 2006-2008 3 2008-2010 3 2010-2012 3 OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION COLLECTED 4 New Hampshire’s First State House History and the Struggle to Preserve It 4 Architectural Drawings and Models 4 Conditions Assessment 5 Interpretation Assessment 6 Economic Assessment 8 Project Website 10 Public Comment 10 EXAMINING RECONSTRUCTION 11 FINAL RECOMMENDATION 12 ACTION PLAN 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 16 APPENDICES Appendix A: Status Report Correspondence Appendix B: Timeline Appendix C: Architectural Drawings and Models Appendix D: Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Reconstruction Appendix E: Conditions Assessment i CONTENTS (Continued) Appendix F: Interpretation Assessment Appendix G: Economic Assessment Appendix H: Increasing Positive Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism in New Hampshire Appendix I: Public Involvement Appendix J: Roundtable ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY New Hampshire’s First State House Project has been a planning project to explore the resource’s value as a historical artifact and potential catalyst to heritage tourism in New Hampshire, and to determine the best use or uses of the resource based on a series of targeted studies and public comment. Supported by an Economic Development Initiative (EDI) grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the project has been overseen by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources (NHDHR). New Hampshire’s First State House was built in 1758 in Portsmouth as the seat of New Hampshire’s colonial government. Dismantled in 1836 following the decades-earlier move of the state capitol out of Portsmouth, one third of the deteriorating building’s frame was removed to Portsmouth’s Court Street and survived after being sold to a private owner who converted it into a townhouse. In 1969, the State of New Hampshire purchased the building for restoration by Strawbery Banke Museum and moved it to the museum property. After two decades of delay and changes in the museum’s mission, the structure was deconstructed and removed from Strawbery Banke Museum in 1990. An historic structures report was prepared and the building elements marked, placed into storage, and moved to Concord, New Hampshire. Since its inception, the project has involved compiling and assessing extensive information about the condition and extent of the resource currently dismantled and in storage, its interpretative potential, and the economic viability and benefit potential of various interpretation options. A final recommendation for pursuing a plan of action to share New Hampshire’s First State House with its citizens and visitors was made based on these professional assessments and the public’s responses and comments. In addition, the short-term storage conditions of the resource have been upgraded to maintain the resource while plans to implement proposed uses are developed as a follow-up to this planning project. The final recommendation is a phased, multi-component approach that uses the First State House to supplement and support historic sites and stories around the state. The first phase would be an exhibit installed within a large existing space, with the potential to use major framing members as a sculptural display alongside interpretive exhibit materials. The second phase would involve permanent exhibits in the State House Visitors Center in Concord and at the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion in Portsmouth, two existing state sites with close ties to the history of the First State House. An online presence related to these exhibits and small traveling exhibits round out the proposed interpretation opportunities, extending the benefits of the project throughout the state and beyond. Although full reconstruction of the First State House was often discussed as a re-use option in the past, it is not recommended within this report for reasons summarized on pages 11-12. These collective components use the resource to create greater opportunities for the public throughout New Hampshire to enjoy and benefit from the resource’s history and values, with a strong potential to be economically viable. Among numerous identified potential benefits, the recommended approach could build interest in the related history of the First State House and of the state, make the history of the First State House relevant to today, leverage current site visitorship with the potential for increasing visitors at existing state sites, build partnerships with related nearby sites and between state agencies in meeting stewardship responsibilities of state historic sites and collections, and develop partnerships with New Hampshire’s communities. 1 PROJECT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The HUD EDI grant would not have been possible without the support of Senator Judd Gregg and the advocacy of the City of Portsmouth and its Blue Ribbon Committee. The project could not have been completed successfully without the dedication of the NHDHR project team: Elizabeth H. Muzzey, James L. Garvin, Peter Michaud and Deborah Gagne. New Hampshire Department of Cultural Resources Commissioner Van McLeod and the DCR Business Office including Kathleen Stanick, Shelly Angers, and Linda Cilley provided invaluable support. Many thanks go to the state agencies that have helped with the project and with the stewardship of the resource, particularly the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the New Hampshire Department of Corrections moving services project teams. Project consultants from Cultural Heritage Research Services, Inc., TMS Architects, The Cherry Valley Group, Inc., ConsultEcon, Inc., and Stephen Gianotti provided the project with critical professional expertise. Appreciation also goes to the project’s volunteers, participants in public meetings and surveys, and Plymouth State University, Strawbery Banke Museum, the Portsmouth Historical Society and the Kimball Jenkins Estate for hosting project meetings. ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY The State of New Hampshire was awarded this EDI-Special Project grant in February 2006. The grant agreement became effective on May 18, 2007. A Special Projects Director with the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources managed the project between November 2006 and July 2008. No work was completed on the project for more than a year until a second Special Projects Director could be hired in April 2010 to complete it. When the project resumed in 2010 the NHDHR requested and received approval to alter the grant's budget line appropriations to reflect elements and requirements of the project that had changed during the on-hold period. In June 2011, the NHDHR requested an expiration date extension of eighteen months to make up for most of the time the project was on hold. Unfortunately, HUD replied that extensions for Special Project grants are not permitted. Despite a constricted schedule, the project's goals and requirements were met by the grant's original May 18, 2012 expiration date. PROJECT GOALS Although the general goal of the planning project remained intact—to stabilize the First State House remnants and determine how to sustainably interpret the resource as a historical artifact in a way that would support cultural and heritage tourism—during the duration of the project there were necessary changes in how that goal was interpreted. When this planning project was conceived in 2005 and the grant awarded in 2006, the principal activities laid out in the project plan were intended to compile the information necessary to make a final assessment of how best to restore and interpret a historically significant resource and enhance cultural and heritage tourism in southeastern New Hampshire. At the time 2 there was an underlying assumption that the exploration of the “building's value as a historical artifact and a catalyst for heritage tourism” would compliment the development of a plan for the “reconstruction, use, administration and maintenance” of New Hampshire’s First State House leading toward the potential reconstruction of the structure as a visitors’ center in New Hampshire’s Seacoast Region (NHDHR 2005). Through 2008, the project included but was not limited to studying the possibility of that option. Since that time, however, other organizations have stepped up their efforts to promote heritage tourism in the Seacoast, fulfilling that purpose. When the project commenced again in 2010, the study to evaluate ways in which the history and values of the resource could benefit New Hampshire was clearly and intentionally broadened beyond the visitors’ center focus. With HUD’s approval in October 2010, the project’s tasks shifted away from exploring reconstruction as a visitors’ center in the Seacoast toward exploring ways to create greater opportunities for the public throughout New Hampshire to enjoy and benefit from the resource’s history and values. PROJECT PROGRESS 2006-2008 Between November 2006 and July 2008 NHDHR hired a Special Projects Director and finalized the grant agreement, and advertised for and contracted with two consultants (building conservator and historic architect).