Portsmouth, Ohio

 

population: 20,909. seat of scioto county.

 

on the ohio river where the scioto meets with it. has a mural covered floodwall, the green bay packers old home, right now they are rebuilding a bridge, it feels a lot bigger than twenty thousand people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the courthouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've always liked Portsmouth...nicely walkable, even if there isn't much to walk to...and anywhere with a big-ass bridge just rocks...

This block is dreadful:

My hometown. Ha. Thanks for reminding me Summit Street, I gotta go home next weekend for a wedding, nice job of getting the important stuff though. Portsmouth reminds me of a rustbelt town more than an appalachia type of town-minus the hicks and monster trucks running around.

 

Riverviewer, I don't know if you know but the big-ass bridge got knocked down a couple of summers ago. Hopefully one of these days the new one will open, but its not nearly as cool looking as the old one.

 

Grasscat, those buildings were just recently bought last year by the city to house the new city municipal building. They paid 2.5 Million dollars for that dump that has caught on fire twice. My father is a councilman and the frontrunner for the next mayorial election and is fighting hard to build elsewhere downtown.

 

I'm kinda mixed on my feelings of Portsmouth. Part of me wants to go back home when i get out of school and try my magic to get it turned around with my father and the other half of me says that I'm too good and I have better things to do (in a sarcastic way)than to go back. Once again good pics.

Oh and I forgot to add, it was home to the Portsmouth Spartans who became the Detroit Lions, not the Packers. They just brag about how they beat the Packers.

Nice pictures... my impression of Portsmouth was that it looked kinda sad, at least in the area near the floodwall/murals.

 

By the way, just out of curiosity what are the 8 remaining county seats that have yet to be blessed by a Summit Street photo tour?

summit,

 

hasn't your camera or your car broke yet?

 

sheesh you really get around.

 

you should change your title to "county seat whore"

"Courthouse courtesan" sounds much more respectable...

detroit and not green bay? ha, oops

 

 

pope: my camera is fine, but as for my car....it's having some troubles right now, i probably won't be taking it on many highways anytime soon.

the name change idea doesn't sound too bad, but having whore in my name is probably not gonna happen

Portsmouth looks bigger than 20,000 because it once was bigger--about 50% bigger in population. I always think it is the southern counterpart to Sandusky. They are similar in size, one on the lake, the other on the river, but Sandusky has Cedar Point, Portsmouth has a large prison (north of the city). It also has a university though--Shawnee State.

...and Shawnee State Park - nice lake (with a cool spillway/dam thing), a few decent hiking trails, nice lodge/cabins, and a very pleasant drive to get there...unfortunately, the fire tower was locked up when we went there, but then I can't remember the last time I hiked to a fire tower that wasn't locked up...

By the way' date=' just out of curiosity what are the 8 remaining county seats that have yet to be blessed by a Summit Street photo tour?[/quote']

 

county-seat

 

adams-west union

athens-athens

brown-georgetown

carroll-carrollton

columbiana-lisbon

harrison-cadiz

jefferson-steubenville

vinton-mcarthur

Nice tour of the town.

Just ran across some shots from when we first went to Shawnee State Park for a weekend - here's the view from an overlook-ish area:

 

...and here's a picture of the fire tower, which I believe was around a quarter mile away from that overlook:

 

Ach, can you imagine what you can see from that tower?  Certainly all of Portsmouth, which is only about 10 miles away.  It sits on a 1300" hill, and it's probably 50" tall itself - Chillicothe is 40-45 miles away - I bet on a clear day you could see that far.  You could certainly see Mount Logan.

quote by mohr37:

"Grasscat, those buildings were just recently bought last year by the city to house the new city municipal building.  They paid 2.5 Million dollars for that dump that has caught on fire twice.  My father is a councilman and the frontrunner for the next mayorial election and is fighting hard to build elsewhere downtown."

 

I think I read that a judge blocked that purchase because it had been discussed illegally in a secret meeting.  We're talking about the old Marting's store, right?

 

I'll see what I can dig up because I think I saw an article on it yesterday.

 

very nice to see portsmouth. it seems to be a good lookin well prerserved town. i hear the riverfront drive there from cinci is very nice --- i always wanted to do that drive. also, my dayton father in law is friends with the former police chief of portsmouth so he goes there on occasion to visit and i guess he has good things to say about the place too.

 

so whats that fancy old arched building structure? an old theater? it looks like something out of hollywood - haha!

 

Wow....those pictures are immpressive, I love looking at old buildings, I'm writing a story about this town, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to look at all this and feel the history. These pictures will make my story even better. ^_^

I read that many of the old buildings in Portsmouth were destroyed, I'm glad they saved some of them! I would've been so disappointed if they didn't...

Here are some updates...

 

 

The building on the left was the Columbia Theater, which burned in November 2007. The "dump" of a building was the former Marting Department Store and there was an article posted today regarding it.

Wow....those pictures are immpressive, I love looking at old buildings, I'm writing a story about this town, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to look at all this and feel the history. These pictures will make my story even better. ^_^

 

What kind of story are you writing? I would love to get a copy of it, if you don't mind, when you are finished. My father is from there and I still have a lot of family in Portsmouth and surrounding areas. I usually make it there five or six times a year, I spent many Labor Days as a kid at the River Days Festival. They all speak very fondly of Portsmouth but are saddened by its decline the past few decades. I would love for the city to have a rebirth of sorts in the future...

I was just in "Ptown" last night partying with some friends that go to shawnee.

^

So whats partying in Ptown like?  We need a trip report!

^ Portsmouth is a non-stop party. I'm not kidding. It's awesome.

LMAO.

Lots of Alcohol, naked chicks, and videotaping!  :-D

I can tell from my recent visits that Shawnee chicks are a little more wild compared to when I went there. Back then (late '90s-early 2000s) it was a lot smaller and people sometimes called it Shawnee High.

It's one of the fastest growing universities in the state, given that it is also the cheapest public university.

I was hoping to see the Funeral home!  I love that "building" as it was once once of the biggest mansions in Portsmouth at one time.  My husbands great Aunt  lived in that mansion. I believe my father-in-law once told me that it was actually a lot bigger than that.  Since it's time, they demolished part of the home.  My husbands, dad's side of the family was from Portsmouth.  His grandpa and grandma are buried in the cemetery that right outside of town (I can't remember the name) and his grandpa's family is buried in the cemetery right there in town.

 

What kind of story are you writing? I would love to get a copy of it, if you don't mind, when you are finished. My father is from there and I still have a lot of family in Portsmouth and surrounding areas. I usually make it there five or six times a year, I spent many Labor Days as a kid at the River Days Festival. They all speak very fondly of Portsmouth but are saddened by its decline the past few decades. I would love for the city to have a rebirth of sorts in the future...

 

Well, I'd rather not say too much about my story, but I will say it takes place during the Civil War. And yeah, I can tell Portsmouth has alot of decay, it is sad, because I can tell it must have been thriving earlier on. But maybe there is hope for it yet. ^_^

civilwarfreak,

Have you read the book A Magnificent Irishman from Appalachia: The Letters of Lt. James Gildea, First Ohio Light Artillery, Battery L?  My grandfather was the author about an Irish immigrant from Portsmouth and his accounts in the war.  They use to carry a couple copies of it at the Cincinnati Museum Center giftshop.  If you're interested in it just message me and I can provide you a copy.

 

oh here's a review of the book

http://www.civilwarnews.com/reviews/bookreviews.cfm?ID=907

:clap:

 

Terrific job, Summit street!  I grew up mainly on McConnell Ave., a few blocks west of Summit Street, and it runs three blocks from Robibnson Ave. to Grant St. on the south side of the wonderful Mound park.  I still love the old home town.  A cliche' is that "It ain't like it used to be, but probably never was."

 

I often refer to Portsmouth as "the center of our universe" as it was to most of us who lived there. 

 

Portsmouth is a grand old lady, who once thrived, but lost out to a few selfish movers and shakers who wanted to keep the beauty for themselves and their clicks.  Even for the great resources in the waterways, the railroad, the steel mills and shoe factories and many small businesses, it just faded away.  I know no details for sure of whom those selfish few were among us in Portsmouth.  You can be sure that even in this world's greatest democracy, the selfish few are always among us and thriving, even with respectability.  Forgive my sarcasm here.

 

Even this great USA could fall through selfish elected officials, even though many think it can''t happen.  It seems to me that it is happening here in 2008.  But I have hope that restoration can be made.

 

Thanks Summit Street!