It seems not only does every picture tell a story, but every street name as well.

This certainly holds true for Portsmouth, where the history of the town is written into its streets, parks, rivers, buildings and schools. What better reason do Seacoast residents sporting even a mild interest in local history need to pick up "The Placenames of Portsmouth," a recently published work offering a relaxing literary tour on how each and every Portsmouth street and landmark earned its name.

Written by Nancy W. Grossman, a 60-year-old southern California transplant no less, this well-researched 242-page book, filled with 232 photographs and 16 maps, is designed to provide the answers for inquiring minds that want to know about any prominent — or obscure — person, place or street connected to the Port City. The history contained within, be it rumour, conjecture or substantiated fact, behind all 466 streets in Portsmouth are tackled in some form or another, with a fair share of eyebrow-raising tidbits and none of the pretentiousness and tedium accompanying many similar books written by historians.

"The Placenames of Portsmouth" is enjoyable and informative, more informative than verbose, and better perused at leisure rather than as a heavy academic tome. In fact, it's probably best to start this book from the back, allowing the index to guide one's curiousity and dictate which page to flip.

Rest assured, over the years, this book is likely to become quite dog-eared.

"There are countless ways to tell history, most of them chronological, cut and dried and heavily laced with footnotes. 'The Placenames of Portsmouth' is anything but that," Grossman said in a recent interview. "My favorite thought is this is history for the rest of us. I'm an amateur historian who avoids writting a book full of footnotes and endnotes. I like to write fun history in an interesting way to help people get a handle on the area if they're new here."

That she does.

Ever wonder how Deer Street, Mirona Road, Moebus Terrace or Bersum Lane got their names? You may think you do, but maybe not.

How the Port City's main waterway came to be called Piscataqua? Grossman is not quite sure herself but she provides three good guesses.

Know why Sarah Mildred Long, William Vaughan, Connie Bean or Thomas J. McIntyre have buildings, malls or bridges named after them? The six different names State and Congress streets had between them before settling on their current designations? Why roadways are called blocks rather than streets?

Bear in mind, "The Placenames of Portsmouth" is more practical if used as a reference book, akin to one those handbooks full of quotations or 'did you know?' factoids. Grossman's entertaining book should be tucked under one's arm while strolling the historic district of Portsmouth or kept among the dictionaries and thesauruses above one's desk and pulled out when a curious placename comes along that catches the eye.

Chapter 1 offers up a strong lead-in and interesting take on the naming of places, scientifically known as toponymy, and how methods on doing so have changed over the centuries. Seems you can tell the age of a street by its name.

Grossman discovers that while America was settled in the 1600s, streets took their names from landmarks like Market, Court and Church; the elements like Water, Spring and Hill; or geographic location like South, Middle, and Northwest.

"As time went by, most early towns also acknowledged the powers that be — Portsmouth once had its King and Queen streets — and nostalgia for the old country inspired countless street names of English origin," Grossman writes. The American Revolution, Industrial Revolution, world wars, a growth in urban life and the advent of the train and automobile all played a role over time. Poets and authors also made a difference.

A fine example of Grossman's detailed work describes the city's reasoning behind officially adding an 's' to Daniel Street, a move that makes sense when told by her.

"It was a move intended to please Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels," Grossman writes. "Early in the 20th century, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was perceived to be on the brink of closure — some things never change. Daniels was thought to be a real friend of the yard, and the idea of adding one little 's' to a street seemed like a good investment in the shipyard's future."

Perhaps the mayor of Portsmouth should consider a Rumsfeld Avenue?

The Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce should recommend this book on its website to tourists planning to visit the Port City, assisting them with, as the book cover says, "an anecdotal stroll through the centuries and neighborhood of Portsmouth.

"The Placenames of Portmouth" will please the first-time visitor to the Port City, a city that seeks to promote its historic roots. What tourist wouldn't love to learn that Pest Island takes its name from the early practice of isolating those with contagious diseases, smallpox in particular, which frequently raged through the area in the 1700s? That the 10 streets in the Atlantic Height's neighborhood honor Portsmouth-built ships-of-war such as the USS Ranger, USS Raleigh and HMS Falkland.

Grossman said the concept for the book came about as she read a similar one while visiting St. Louis.

"That book on the streets of St. Louis stuck in the back of my mind that Portsmouth was just right for this," Grossman said.

Grossman said she dove into Portsmouth history after moving to the area from Southern California in 1991to open Governor's House Bed & Breakfast with her husband, John. Putting "The Placenames of Portsmouth" together proved more a matter of "connecting the dots" because the history behind many of the cities centuries-old streets, homes and buildings centuries is more "educated guess" than solid fact, she said.

"There's really no way to prove anything," Grossman said.

In a sense, that's the beauty behind the book, lending a bit of mystery behind the history with the older the road the more story to be told. Starting with the Strawbery Banke, which served as the city's original name — you'll need to read the book to learn why — before residents petitioned to switch it to Portsmouth.

If you live outside Portsmouth and wish your city or town had a book like this, fret not. Grossman said strong book sales so far has inspired her and her husband — two accomplished desktop publishers calling themselves "Placenames Press" — to seek writers "eager to tackle their own towns and cities." The couple do all the design, layout and doctoring of scanned images required to present a digitized version to an on-demand printer. All the writer needs to do is the research and composing it in an interesting manner.

If Grossman has it her way, the Portsmouth book is simply Volume 1.

A 65-page handbook on preparing a manuscript for a Placenames book is available, filled with tips on how to plan and research the project.

"The Placenames of Portsmouth" is available at Barnes & Noble in Newington, online at www.placenamespress.com, or by calling Grossman at 603-436-9485. It retails for $18.95 and the ISBN is 0-9767590-0-4.