The Mysterious Old Statehouse Balcony

Legend says the Declaration of Independence was read to the people of Portsmouth from a balcony at the Old Statehouse in 1776. President George Washington waved to the crowds from that balcony in 1789, we think. These two photographs show an iron balcony that may once have been attached to the Old Statehouse that stood in the center of Market Square.

Legend also tells us that balcony was attached to a house on Deer Street possibly in the 1930s. But the historians I spoke with think that is unlikely. This balcony appears to be from a later era–maybe early 19th, rather than mid-18th century.

Built in 1758, the Old Statehouse stood between what is now North Church and the Portsmouth Athenaeum, smack in the center of Congress Street (formerly King Street). It was broken up and removed in 1836. The rotted timbers of the building lie in a trailer in Concord. Costly studies have determined that any form of reconstruction of one-third of the building that survives is infeasible. , This balcony, perhaps a later addition to the original building, may have survived and been installed on one or more houses in town.

But there is, as yet, no definitive proof that this balcony is the real deal. The house pictured, the Thomas Beck House, survives on “The Hill” downtown, but the balcony is missing – possibly stolen decades ago during the urban renewal in the North End. Does it still exist? Sources have sent evidence that the balcony pictured here is currently privately owned. (Photos copyright Portsmouth Athenaeum, all rights reserved. )