Portsmouth

Settled more for its economic potential than for any religious freedom it might have provided, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been a vibrant commercial city for much of its history. Ideally located at the mouth of the resource-rich Piscataqua River and about midway between the bigger Boston and Portland, it takes a back seat to no New England city-especially today when the city buzzes with renewed economic life, a younger generation is discovering its hip pleasures, and cultural life, from ga…