New Hampshire: Portsmouth

Score: 73

"Portsmouth is aesthetically and historically of high caliber. It is alive with positive activity: new businesses, restoration of the local Athenaeum, and establishment of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail. There may be a glut of local house museums."

"Attractive, walkable, lively downtown, full of well-preserved buildings in a variety of styles."

"Portsmouth has been able to protect and preserve its classic brick buildings from the early 1800s."

"The conservation of several historic houses has been taken up by one of the country's best grassroots preservation outfits. They have done an impressive job. Tourists, unfortunately, mostly bypass these in favor of the shopping district and seafood restaurants. One big problem is a very poor connection to its waterfront, which may mean that tourists will begin going elsewhere as the coastlines in the Eastern U.S. become more crowded and competition for this resource increases in the coming decades."