Travels of the Southermost School are pictured on this map.

  1. The original location was around 102 Union Street. One of the founders of the Portsmouth Historical Socity – J. Fred Sherman – lived at that location and he commented that in the first half of the 20th century remnants of the cellar were still visible there.
  2. Around 1800 the Southermost School was moved to a location on the north side of Union Street nearer to West Main Road. That lot is used for a utility building for the town. At that time the entryway was added to the building and a wood stove was added because it no longer had a cellar and fireplace. At this time the Schoolhouse was still functioning as a school.
  3. Around 1863 Southermost was no longer needed and the Almy family purchased the building at auction and moved it to Lakeside Farm at 559 Union Street. The remaining lot was used to build the Gibbs School. At Lakeside Farm the building was used as a tack or harness outbuilding. Members of the Hall family remembered that the the building wad moved to the farm by eight teams of oxen.
  4. In 1952 the Hall family – the owners of Lakeside Farm – donated the school building to the Portsmouth Historical Society. With the building came the original lift part of schoolmaster’s desk and one of the original pupil desks. Through fundraising and grants through the years, the Portsmouth Historical Society has kept the one-room school in good condition.