North Pier

North Pier. . Between the late 1600s and the mid-1900s this part of the Piscataqua River waterfront played a significant role in the areas marine commerce and shipbuilding economy. This is the site of the famous Portsmouth Pier. Chartered in 1798, the 340-foot long by 65-foot wide pier housed two structures with over fourteen stores. , In the height of its prosperity, the pier was the terminus of the Portsmouth to Concord toll road. It was operated in conjunction with the elegant New Hampshire Hotel, formerly located just west of this site. The pier was also the terminus of the Portsmouth Aqueduct, a gravity fed pipeline flowing from a spring in the western part of the City to the pier where merchant vessels refilled their water supplies. The entire complex was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1813. , Charles E. Walker reconstructed the pier in 1882 and successfully operated the Walker Coal Company until destroyed by fire in 1951. In 1965, the pier remnants were purchased by the Prescott Park Trustees and converted to a marina and public pier. In 2000, the Prescott Park Trustees in partnership with the City of Portsmouth completed replaced the pier for continued public access to the river. , This project was funded in part by a grant from the NH Office of State Planning, NH Coastal Program, with funds provided under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.