SIDE BARS

Hampton Beach Committee members from left, Skip Windemiller, Fred Rice, John Kane, Warren Bambury, Jim Workman, and Brian Warburton, stand in front of the Hampton River Bridge. Photo:  Jamie Cohen

The sepia-toned photographs told the story. The Civil War was in the past, the economy booming. Each summer, a stream of families left the stifling heat of Philadelphia and New York behind and headed north to the New England shore.

There, near the cool breeze of the Atlantic Ocean, graceful Victorian buildings, some on a grand scale, provided lodging and shops, restaurants and amusements.

This turn-of-the-20th-century picture was the heyday of the New England beach, and it has not since lived up to its tasteful and elegant beginnings.

But in two beach towns on the Seacoast, business people and citizens have banded together in an attempt to go back to the future and to restore the resort communities to their former glory.

Within a decade, and considerably sooner if they can make it so, Hampton Beach and York Beach could look markedly different than today.

In the place of an architectural mishmash of styleless and flat-roofed buildings interspersed with an occasional Victorian gem, the communities could look more like they once did.

Instead of T-shirt and souvenir shops, there could be small art galleries, boutiques, upscale gift shops, interesting and varied restaurants, perhaps a grand hotel or two.

None of this will happen without significant zoning changes, considerable help from public and private entities, the backing of a seasonal business community that often heads south for the winter and – in its own way, most importantly – the approval of a citizenry that lives elsewhere in town and often sees their beaches as a place apart and not necessarily of their concern.

However, the Hampton Beach Commission and the York Beach Renaissance Committee are committed to overcome any obstacle and to reinventn what their members see as a vital and important financial and cultural draw to their communities.

Hampton Beach

There is no reason that Hampton Beach cannot become a tasteful, year-round tourist destination and home, and in a way that brings money into the coffers of developers, business owners, the town and the state.

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How can beaches in your area be reinvented?

That is the mission of the Hampton Beach Commission, which was formed by the state Legislature two and a half years ago for that purpose.

York Beach business owners and the York Chamber of Commerce are rallying together. Photo:  Deb Cram

So that the 1890s conform to the 2000s, one of the commission’s most important transformations will not even be visible. In the next several months, a $12 million sewer infrastructure project is scheduled to be completed. With it, the kind of development the commission hopes to attract will find Hampton Beach appealing.

Commission Chairman Fred Rice points to the Breckenridge, a project already in the works at the former site of the Old Salt restaurant between J and K streets. With stores on the first floor, condominiums above and parking below, it is "just the kind of building we want to encourage."

According to Rice, a comprehensive zoning package is expected to come before voters next March. It will define where three- and four-story buildings will be encouraged (Ocean Boulevard) and where they will be discouraged (the island section of the beach).

Moreover, it will set architectural standards as well. "The turn of the century is what we’re striving for," said Rice. "It won’t be a rubber stamp, but we also don’t want 1970s Howard Johnson next to Victorian lattice work. We want to establish a theme that’s going to work for the beach."

Two other major projects are also on the horizon. One is a parking garage, which could be on the ballot next March as well. Pointing to Portsmouth’s efforts at a public-private partnership for a new garage, Rice and Town Manager James Barrington said they see no reason why Hampton couldn’t forge a similar deal. "Parking in and of itself is big business at the beach. The town has a lot, the beach precinct has a lot, there are private lots," said Barrington.

The other, a state project, is the replacement of the Hampton River Bridge that connects Hampton Beach and Seabrook Beach. Rice said rehabbing the bridge is not a solution. And while he admits the $19-million- to $28-million project is significant, he said the town’s master plan has called for replacement. Without it, he said, the future growth of the beach is compromised.

Barrington and Rice are both philosophical, and know that in Hampton there will always be naysayers. But, said Barrington, "The general feeling I get is that folks are ready for change that will bring improvements. It’s time for a facelift. It’s time to reinvigorate the image of Hampton Beach 100 years ago."

York Beach

Some 28 miles north of Hampton Beach, York Beach is facing many of the same challenges, albeit on a more modest scale. But the stakes are just as high, for like Hampton, it too has become a down-at-the-heels version of its former glory.

The York Beach Renaissance Committee sees its first order of business as two-fold. A comprehensive zoning ordinance creating a York Beach Village District is expected to be on the ballot in November. Central to the ordinance, buildings could go both up – as high as four floors – and out, to cover the entire lot.

This is consistent with the density of the beach at the turn of the 20th century, said chamber president Cathy Goodwin. It also gives building owners an incentive to make additional money by renting out second and third floors to small office professionals, tourists and (key to the committee) seasonal workers who typically can’t afford places in York Beach.

All work would be done in accordance with Victorian architectural standards and approved by a design review committee. The owners of several buildings have already bought into the dream. Just in the past month, the long-derelict Pop’s Shell Shack building was approved for shops, restaurants and condominiums. And the building that houses Shelton’s will be refurbished to its Victorian elegance.

Of equal importance, voters will be asked to approve a tax increment finance district, or TIF. A parking garage is also being discussed as a possible TIF project.

Eventually, as in Hampton, the committee would like to see a year-round attraction at the beach.

But for now, it will be content "to make York Beach like it used to be," said committee Chairwoman Dawn Grasso.

"We don’t want to be a downtown Portsmouth," said Goodwin. "We want to be York Beach."