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A Brief History of Seacoast New Hampshire,
Home of the James House
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1640
map:
In 1640 our coastline was dotted with early English settlements. Four
of these became New Hampshire's first towns: Dover, Exeter, Strawbery
Banke, which became Portsmouth, and Hampton. |
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Hampton's settlement was
built around the meeting house, near the river landing and the
marshes. Gradually they replaced their crude shelters with well-build
timber-framed dwellings, constructed in the English style of framing.
These were to become known as the "first period" houses.
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For
nearly a century the houses were build in the first period style.
By the middle of the 1700's the Georgian colonial became the style,
and the older first period houses were beginning to disappear. |
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1806 map:
By the 19th century many of the first period homes were gone.
In New Hampshire, only a precious few remained, notably in Portsmouth
and Exeter. All of Hampton's first period houses were thought
to be gone forever.
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