We’re able to get these grants because we can show community support.”

Doug Smith, vice president of the Portsmouth Historical Society

Doctor’s books donated

The Portsmouth Historical Society's current exhibit is “Out of the Attic,” featuring artifacts that had been stored away in the attics of local homes. It includes medical items donated by the family of the late Dr. Benjamin Greene.

“He was a local physician from 1860 to 1907,” said Mr. Garman, noting that Dr. Greene’s former house and office was located at the bottom of Quaker Hill on East Main Road, “across from where the old Shell station used to be.”

The Society recently donated 40 of Dr. Greene’s medical books, dating from 1832 to 1890, to Brown University Medical School.

PORTSMOUTH — Things are looking a little brighter at the Portsmouth Historical Society — literally.

The exterior of the museum headquarters, at the corner of East Main Road and Union Street, just got a splash of new paint and six windows will be replaced.

It’s the first step in a new round of renovation work Society members are undertaking on the building in hopes of attracting more visitors and keeping the museum vital.

But they can’t get the job done without more community support, said Society members.

Gary Gump, a member of the Society’s board of directors, said the bill for painting and repairing the exterior and interior of the first-floor exhibit space — the downstairs work begins after the museum closes for the season in a few weeks — is $45,000. The contractor is the Preservation Coop of Warren. 

The project is being funded through grants of $30,000 and $10,000 from the R.I. Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission and The 1772 Foundation, Inc., respectively; and $5,000 from the Society itself, he said.

The grants, which funded the bulk of the work, wouldn’t have been possible had the Society not seen such a significant bump in membership over the past two years.

“They like to see that the community was engaging with us,” said Mr. Gump.

Doug Smith, the Society’s vice-president, agreed. 

“We’re able to get these grants because we can show community support,” he said. “We want to get our name out there to show people we’re doing something. It’s important that people know that the money they spend as members, the donations they make, is part of all this.”

But the Society has bigger plans beyond sprucing the place up, which include the expensive task of making the building handicapped accessible, complete with an elevator. 

The larger grants need more community support, they said, and the membership numbers have slipped a little.

Society President Jim Garman said membership was at 580 at one point, compared to only 85 a year and a half ago. But numbers have dropped lately because many people — up to 200, Mr. Smith said — haven’t renewed their annual membership.

(You can sign up or renew your membership here. The annual fee is $15 for an individual, $25 for a family.)

“If we stop dropping off on membership, it’s going to be more difficult to get grants,” said Mr. Smith. “If you live in a town of 17,000, 80 members isn’t showing much. I don’t think 500 members is showing much, either."

Big price tags

Making the first-floor bathroom handicapped accessible and installing a ramp leading from the outside will cost about $25,000, Mr. Garman said.

An elevator to the second floor, where the main audience room is located, “will probably cost a couple hundred thousand,” he said.

A Roger Williams University architect has drawn up diagrams showing where the elevator can go without making any major structural changes.

“It’s going to be expensive, but the cool thing about that — if we even get it done — that opens up the meeting room up there for concerts and other events,” said Mr. Smith.

The building, constructed in 1865, is the former location of the Union Church which held services on the second floor. The room, which still has pews, an old pipe organ and pulpit, was rehabbed about 20 years ago but these days stays empty most of the time.

“It will seat maybe 200 people,” said Mr. Garman. “And it’s just not being used right now.”

For now, through, the Society will concentrate on improving the overall appearance of the building. 

The paint job will move inside after the museum’s last day of the season on Oct. 8. “We have to do something with these exhibits and get people in to help move tables and cases,” said Mr. Smith. 

“We’ve got some major expenses coming up, but we’re taking it one step at a time. This is the first step.”

Latest find: Col. Barton’s snuff box 

While Jim Garman and Doug Smith talked about recent developments at the Portsmouth Historical Society, they took time to praise curator Nancy Crawford and her staff, who have been busy unearthing old treasures from the town’s past.

“They’re hustling right now and doing a good job of inventorying our artifacts — a gigantic job,” said Mr. Garman, the Society’s president, while walking around the museum’s first-floor exhibition room. “They’ve done pretty much this whole room, and it’s all going to get digitized.”

Added Mr. Smith, the organization’s vice-president: “We have so much stuff in here that we hadn’t documented."

That includes a recent find by Ms. Crawford: A snuff box once owned by William Barton, the Continental Army officer who led a small group of soldiers in the daring capture of British Gen. Richard Prescott in Portsmouth during the Revolutionary War in 1777. 

The Society was already in possession of Col. Barton’s wallet, which Mr. Smith said is his favorite artifact the Society owns. 

“I’m a big Col. Barton guy,” he said.

Both the snuff box and wallet are currently on display at the Portsmouth Free Public Library.