Local History: Strawbery Banke - Water Has A Memory

Water Has a Memory: Advocate, Adapt, and Educate

Strawbery Banke Museum is an outdoor living history museum that has worked since 1958 to preserve the houses left in its care. Through decades of challenges, Strawbery Banke has grown and prospered, but now faces one of its biggest threats – water. This talk outlines this threat and explains some of the progress made to date and some of the many water impacts that need to be addressed.

While understanding and responding to this threat remains a major priority, Strawbery Banke has committed to teaching what they learn and do as part of their Sea Level Rise Initiative. Strawbery Banke is not alone in facing these challenges, and they hope that by sharing their story they can help others and, perhaps, engage visitors to make a positive impact toward a global solution to sea level rise. As part of this commitment, this talk will introduce a 2021 exhibit at Strawbery Banke entitled “Water Has a Memory: Preserving Strawbery Banke and the City of Portsmouth from Sea Level Rise.”

Registration is required. This event is free and open to all. 

Rodney Rowland first joined Strawbery Banke Museum, the living history museum in downtown Portsmouth, as a volunteer in 1976 before joining the staff in 1990. His involvement has always focused on the preservation and long-term sustainability of this important historic site. As the Director of Facilities and Environmental Sustainability, he is currently responsible for the 37 buildings on the 9-acre site, overseeing the Facilities, Restoration, and Landscape Departments. Rowland also serves as project manager for many of the museum’s ventures, including those that extend beyond the museum’s property, but that impact the future of the museum and engage visitors to the site. One such project, ongoing since 2013, has paired Strawbery Banke with the City of Portsmouth and explores how predicted sea level rise will affect Portsmouth’s built geography. Rowland represents the museum on the Local Advisory Committee for the Historic Resource Study for the City of Portsmouth and has attended the national “Keeping History Above Water” conferences in 2017 and 2021. He served as co-curator of the 2021 exhibit “Water Has a Memory: Protecting Strawbery Banke Museum and Portsmouth from Sea Level Rise” which is part of a multi-year initiative to study, adapt, and teach about the impacts of sea level rise.