Manufacturer: Syracuse China
User: Rockingham Hotel
Date of platter: 1940

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Notes: The five-story, 100-room Rockingham Hotel was located at 401 State Street in Portsmouth, N.H.

The Rockingham House originally was built as a mansion brick home in 1785 for Judge Woodbury Langdon. Thomas Coburn first opened the Rockingham House as a hotel to the public on Nov. 1, 1833.

Frank Jones – Mayor of Portsmouth, US Representative and noted alemaker -became the owner of the Rockingham in 1870 and greatly enlarged it. In 1884, there was a disastrous fire that destroyed all but the octagonal dining room.

Mr. Jones rebuilt the hotel around the octagonal dining room, using Jabez Sears redesign, sparing no expense; in fact, the project cost him more than the cost of the entire Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The lions atop each set of steps were adopted by Jones as his personal symbol.

In 1973, The Rockingham was purchased by a development corporation for restoration as condominiums. The Library Restaurant reopened in the octagonal dining room in 1975.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Sources:
libraryrestaurant.com/history
portsmouthnh.com
Wikipedia: Frank Jones
Wikipedia: Rockingham Hotel
Hotel Red Books

Adobe Ware tan body with black rim line and dark orange and gray ornamental band border. Topmarked with two lions standing on each side of a brick-columned stair entrance with the phrase "AT THE SIGN OF THE LIONS" beneath, all in dark orange and gray.

For related info:
Rockingham Hotel by Iroquois China
Rockingham Hotel 3 by Maddock Pottery

ID contributed by dbstoneware and apPaul
Rockingham Hotel exterior photos contributed by Paul Lowry on Flickr