A Short History of Rye, New Hampshire
It all began thousands of years ago when Algonquin-speaking peoples settled along the northeast coast of North America. Before the first European explorers made the fatal contact in the early 1600s, there were many settled native communities including 200 members of a tribe living at present-day Rye Harbor in 1606 as reported by Champlain. Eight islands located six miles off Rye’s coast had become a fishing mecca for native peoples for years as well as Portuguese fishermen starting in the 1500s and by the early 1600s European fishermen had established permanent settlements there that thrived until the 1800s.
In June 1623, David Thomson, his family and a few others landed at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, which empties seven rivers and the Great Bay estuary into the ocean. The landing place today is called Little Harbor at Odiorne Point. As to whether this first English settlement was permanent, it is uncertain given the scarce and contradictory written records of that time. Soon more English colonists came to what is now Foss Beach and the settlement was known as Sandy Beach. By the 1630s, the larger communities of Strawbery Banke (Portsmouth), Dover, Hampton and Exeter took root. Most of these early colonists were from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset, England. In the 1620s the Piscataqua seacoast region was the most viable and well supplied English colony in North America. Sandy Beach soon became part of the towns of Portsmouth, New Castle and Hampton. Some of the early founding families were Berry, Brackett, Brown, Locke, Seavey and Odiorne.
After years of petitioning the provincial assembly, Sandy Beach was granted parish status in 1726 and included town government officials. The name was changed to Rye in honor of the Jenness family, who originally immigrated from Rye, East Sussex, England. A poorly built church and minister soon followed; neither of them lasted long. However, by the 1750s, both had been replaced by long-lasting successors. Approximately 800 souls inhabited Rye by the time of the Revolutionary War, including at least 19 enslaved people, two of whom were freed and died in the war along with their former masters and 35 others from Rye. It was a devastating blow to such a small town. In 1785, the state of New Hampshire granted independent town status to Rye, although it took some time to sort out the borders.
The Garland Tavern (1756-1800), which stands today beside the war monument, was the most prominent of many in town. Two other early businesses that remain as private houses to this day are the 1805 Goss (later Rand) store at 2 Lang Road and the 1810 Goss (later Parsons) store at 1 Central Road. Blacksmiths and other trades had businesses scattered about town.
In the early 1800s, Rye thrived as a farming and fishing community, exporting to nearby towns and as far away as Boston. Many from Rye served in the War of 1812 and locals fought off a landing party from a British frigate in the Battle of Rye Harbor in 1814. Over the years, Rye and Portsmouth had established a close relationship as the former provided food and cooling beaches and the latter provided jobs, goods from inland and overseas and entertainment. In the late 1830s the religious revival sweeping New England resulted in three new churches being built in Rye center in just two years.
With the coming of the railroad in the 1840s, Rye’s three pristine, crescent beaches began to lure tourists. It became, a summer resort to rival Newport, Rhode Island, with eight hotels and 25 boarding houses at the height of the Victorian Era after the Civil War. The first was the Atlantic House (1846-1862), the grandest was the second Farragut Hotel (1883-1975) and the Drake House Hotel (1873 – 1968) on Ocean Boulevard at South Road. It still stands today as an apartment building. The Ocean Wave hotel also survived until it burned in 1960. The hotel empire extended to the Isles of Shoals with hotels on Appledore, burned 1914, and the Oceanic on Star Island, which remains today as a conference center.
During the Civil War, at least 86 Rye men served and at least two were killed in action, including Harrison Foye in 1863. A copy of the letter he wrote home before he died has been preserved at the Rye Historical Society museum. Fifteen who were drafted avoided service by paying a $300 bounty, requiring others to serve in their place. During the war, fishermen became exempt from military service, thus increasing the number of fishermen in Rye.
In 1873, Rye purchased the 1839 church on 10 Central Road and converted it to a town hall where many government and cultural functions have taken place ever since. These have ranged from town meetings, a theatrical production in 1895 entitled: “Freezing a Mother-in-Law,” and dancing; to church fairs, school graduations and musical performances. With its strategic geographic location and proximity to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Rye has never been a provincial backwater. In 1874, the town was the terminus for the first successful trans-Atlantic international telegraph line (until 1922). The 1875 cable station is now a private home. Rye continued to host many prominent people in its hotels including presidents.
By the end of the 1800s, there were four neighborhood schools: West (wooden structure) 1870s, South (brick) 1881, Wedgwood in Center (brick) 1893 and East (stone) 1896. Rye Consolidated School (Rye Junior High today) opened in 1934, replacing the four schools. The Rye Elementary opened in 1956. From 1934 until 1943, Rye was a college town with Stoneleigh College for women occupying the handsome former hotel by that name built in 1920. Later it was the Franciscan Friary, which was demolished in 1995.
In 1899, the trolley had come to town, connecting Rye’s growing population of 1,100 residents to the larger region. The completion of the basic road network including Ocean Boulevard in 1904 also stimulated growth and promoted the first housing development in the new Jenness Beach village district. By 1905, the Rye Beach Village district and Abenaki golf course was established. The coming of the automobile and the late 1930s military build-up was followed by larger post-war housing developments. But the great salt and fresh water marshes, the forest and fields and the meandering roads with their many old farmsteads and family graveyards remained.
Wars impacted Rye as thirty-six men served in World War I with three killed in action and a war monument erected to honor all veterans. The New Hampshire National Guard 197th artillery unit had its two-week summer training in Rye at its camp off Cable Road during the 1920s and 1930s. During World War II, the military took over Odiorne Point, demolished most of the summer homes there and established Fort Dearborn to protect Portsmouth Harbor and the Navy Yard. Pulpit Rock Observation Tower, being preserved today, was part of the defense. 244 Rye residents served in the war all over the globe, but Richard Goss was the only one who was killed, in a submarine in 1945.
The size of town government increased based on population growth with the establishment of planning and zoning boards followed in the 1960s by conservation, recreation, the historic district and other boards. The non-profit Rye Civic League was welcomed as an enhancement of citizen engagement. The state of New Hampshire established Odiorne Point State Park, the Rye Harbor State Pier and Jenness and Wallis Sands State Beaches. A new gym at the Junior High School gave the town needed large meeting space. Continued growth in the late 1970s saw escalating house prices and by the year 2000, more than thirty housing developments. In 1974, Rye helped defeat the proposal to build a large oil refinery in Durham that would have had a major impact on the town. The Bi-centennial in 1976 was a great three-day celebration and out of it was born the Rye Historical Society. Rye established the first trash transfer and later recycling center in the county. A movement to preserve open space led to the Parsons Park Corporation, saving 50 aces in Rye Center.
By the turn of the 21st century the Rye Library and Junior High School had been expanded again and the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park and a new Fire/Police station were built and the town museum opened. By 2015, a town heritage commission was established and Goss Farm had become a community agricultural project. In early 2021, a solution to town employee space needs and the restoration of the town hall auditorium was found and plans were under way to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the town’s European origins in 2023.
In spite of many changes over the four centuries of its history, Rye retains much of the beauty of the natural world along with hundreds of buildings of historical significance.
Rye Historical Society, 2021
