Odiorne Point in Rye, New Hampshire, is the site of the first colonial settlement in the state. Over the centuries land use on the rocky point has changed from small farms to summer cottages, to grand hotels and great estates. World War II turned the point into a battery of large guns to protect Portsmouth Harbor, and almost all of the private residences were leveled. The big guns were test-fired once. After the war the property came to the State of New Hampshire and became a state park.
The original photographs of Odiorne Point State Park and the adjacent seacoast are courtesy of the Friends of Odiorne Point, the Seacoast Science Center, the Rye Library and Historical Society, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and the University of New Hampshire Dimond Library Special Collections.
