The Newly Opened Hotel Thaxter promises to be Portsmouth’s Boutique Accommodation of Choice
Above, a Standard Queen Guestroom at the new Hotel Thaxter
The Hotel Thaxter opened at 15 Middle Street (MAP) in December, 2022 in a carefully restored brick heritage building, next door to the John Paul Jones house, and directly across the street from the Portsmouth Historical Society’s Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, at the edge of downtown Portsmouth.
The hotel is named for Portsmouth writer, poet and painter Celia Thaxter who, in the mid-1800s, famously attracted a significant colony of writers, artists and musicians to the Oceanic Hotel that still stands on Star Island in the Isles of Shoals (a New Hampshire Seacoast destination easily reachable by daily ferries from downtown Portsmouth and Rye Harbor, and truly a must-do side-trip, in season, for any visitor with a free half or full day to spend there).
The hotel’s large, high-ceilinged guestrooms, most with spacious walk-in showers (with upgraded bath products), are tastefully decorated in an eclectic style that is at once contemporary as well as warm and comfortable.
The hotel has its own on-site, contemporary Japanese restaurant, Nichinan, a nod to Portsmouth’s sister city, Nichinan, a coastal city in the Japanese Miyazaki Prefecture, and the home of the Japanese diplomats who negotiated the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. Both the Hotel Thaxter and the Nichinan restaurant are owned and operated by the J Group, which also operates Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café, Portsmouth’s premier seafood restaurant, located restaurant immediately next door, as well as a number of other varied local restaurants and cafés.
Valet parking is available for a $40 fee, though there are several surface parking lots just steps from the hotel, and two parking structures about three short blocks away.
The Hotel Thaxter fills a unique niche in downtown Portsmouth, and has Visit New Hampshire’s highest recommendation.