The Shaw Warehouse located inside Prescott Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was constructed between 1806 and 1813 and is significant as a rare example of a vernacular warehouse building from the early 19th century. It is very vernacular, unadorned with a very functional use, but these types of buildings (like barns and stables) are some of the most charming and provide a link to working-class history from the past. The building is the only of its kind remaining in its original location in Portsmouth, and as a result, was listed in 2011 on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. It now houses offices for the nearby park.
c.1891 image of second Hull Yacht Clubhouse, Stebbins Collection, HNE
In the Spring of 1880, thirteen Hull, Massachusetts, summer residents, who owned and raced small sailboats, met and decided to form a yacht club. The Hull Yacht Club was founded that same year. During the first two seasons there was no club house, sailing events were run from a private pier and dock and meetings were held at members homes. Even though they started with no club house, being close to Boston with plenty of deep, protected water, drew many new members. The first clubhouse here was constructed in 1882 and the club saw membership soar to over 500. The clubhouse was quickly deemed inadequate for the Boston-area elite and their massive sloops. The second Hull Yacht Club was completed in May 1891. The New York Times and Outing Magazine described the new club as one of the grandest yacht clubs in America, and at the time, it had the second highest membership in the country! The main club house was designed by architect S. Edwin Tobey, and stood four stories, with a 12 foot wide piazza on three sides covered by endless expanses of shingles. The third floor had billiard rooms and public and private dinning, committee room, reading room, wine room, The second floor housed three bowling alleys, and the first floor had lockers, showers, laundry, spar storage. The club merged a couple times over the subsequent decades, but suffered heavily due to the Great Depression, when the Gilded Age monies stopped flowing as freely. The club sold the massive shingled building to developers who sought to convert the building into a resort, but it was deemed a fire hazard and razed in the 1930s. The club erected a new, modest clubhouse near Point Allerton later.
Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, became a primary whaling port in the early 19th century. Ships from all over the world would dock in its sheltered bay and captains would build grand mansions for their families on the tree lined streets, with sweeping views of the harbor. This modest whaling captain’s home was built around 1840 for Captain John Sands and his wife Eliza. John Sands worked as crew on various whaling ships based out of New Bedford, from the vessel Hector at age 22 before becoming a captain on the vessel Benjamin Tucker. Sands even brought his wife along on whaling ships, including a nearly four year excursion hunting for whale oil. The Sands home is the Greek Revival style with a gable front, six-over-six windows of varying sizes with flared lintels, and an off-center front door with sidelights and transom with an entablature above.
Buildings of New England 