I’m a sucker for old musty magazine articles about Portsmouth, the mustier the better. This one has the distant scent of mildew and White Owl Panetelas. I paid too much for it since the story about Portsmouth runs only three pages out of 130 total. This 1955 issue of “New England Journeys,” however, has a lot to offer on the history of Portsmouth tourism, one of my favorite topics.
As I noted earlier this week we became “The City of the Open Door” in the early 1920s. The slogan, created by the newly formed Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, was designed to attract both industry and tourists. It worked, but not in a big way until after World War II. By the 1950s, families were packing their kids into their Ford station wagon and hitting the road. I know because I was one of them.