Don't be afraid. Lock the doors. Turn out the lights. Inclimb into bed. It's time for

a hillbilly dead time stories.

When you think of the oldest cities in the United States a few will automatically come to mind.

Most will think of St. Augustine, Savannah, maybe even Salem. But many are not aware of

the third oldest city in the United States is Portsmouth, New Hampshire. If you know anything

about the oldest cities in America they all have one thing in common, an exceptional amount

of ghost stories. In this episode you will hear one of them as we learn about the secrets

of water street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

If you ask for directions to water street in Portsmouth you will find that no one knows

its location and it's not on any map. The street name was changed to Marcy Street in 1925

as if to disguise the road's sorbid and violent history. Today Marcy Street is well

traveled by locals and visitors as it leads to the beautiful waterfront gardens known

as Prescott Park. Marcy Street also leads people to strawberry bank, one of the oldest

neighborhoods in the country. Strawberry bank is very much a living history museum but nearly

60 period homes dating as early as the 17th century. The costumed road players and restored homes

and bike visitors back to different eras on the sea coast. The era of Portsmouth's infamous

red light district which largely occupied water street is rarely revisited. The area now known

as Prescott Park was once called Puddle Doc. The name Puddle Doc came from the tidal waters

that used to wash up in from the Pizcataclo river. At low tide these waters appeared like large

puddles. This was where ships came into dock and they offloaded their goods from all around the

world. At this time the area of Portsmouth seemed quite different from the effluent and

grand governor's mansions. This was a rough and tumble part of the town and although the police

...