Gardening at the McIntyre Site

I’m still searching for microscopic evidence that the proposed developers of the controversial McIntyre project are “honoring the history of this site” as promised. Perhaps they should meet Sarah Philbrick Lear Downs of Daniel Street. Her house and garden “green space” (seen here) stood precisely on the spot where the McIntyre Building stands today. The building to the left in this photo, once again, is the historic Stoodley’s Tavern that was moved to Strawbery Banke Museum in the 1960s, Sarah’s house, a lovely New Englander with a porch, fence, and garden, was razed along with its neighboring homes to make way for the federal building. We know she married John O. Downs at the height of the Civil War in 1863. They had two daughters, Hattie and Alice.

We know a bit more about her husband John. Born at the Isles of Shoals, he was the son of John Bragg Downs, the “Last Shoaler.” John’s father refused to sell his house in 1872 when  a rich Boston developer bought out all the other fishing families on Star Island to build the first Oceanic Hotel. That real estate deal killed the island town of Gosport, NH. When the Oceanic burned to the ground in 1875, the Downs family home next door survived the blaze.

I took a quick glance at old newspapers in search of more details about John O. Downs who was descended from a long line of fishermen. The record shows he was a chip off the old block & tackle. In the 1870s he was captain of the fishing schooner “Celia” with a crew of ten.  By 1887 John had moved to the mainland and was partnered with John Holland. They operated a meat and fish market at 8 Bow Street–recently home to Not Just Mud (NJM) gallery and now a bank (or something else).

With a growing family living just up the street, John O. Downs then opened his own fish, meat, and full service grocery store at 67 Market Street (formerly 37 Market Street). The archive includes a photo of the store decorated with patriotic flags and bunting.

According to a note in the Portsmouth Herald, in 1900 John bought a huge haul of 600 lobsters from a local fisherman. In January of the following year, according to gossip, John was sick and resting at his home on Daniel Street. In 1909 thieves broke through the screen door at the back of Downs Fish & Meat Market. They ransacked the place, emptying every drawer, but took nothing of value. “The job was not worth the time and chances which the crook took,” the Herald reported.

On January 28, 1910 the funeral for John O. Downs was held at the family home on Daniel Street.  The son of the “Last Shoaler” was likely laid out in the parlor just inside the building seen here. Sarah Downs died the following year.

I’m not very good at reading architectural sketches, but there appears to be a tiny green space in the proposed plan where Sarah’s lush pocket garden used to be. If that is the bit of the plan that honors the history of the site — we could do a lot better.

(c) J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.