Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Portsmouth, OH

Portsmouth is a city in southern Ohio and the county seat of Scioto County, standing on the north bank of the Ohio River across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River.

Portsmouth was founded in 1803 by Major Henry Massie, a land speculator who platted the town on higher ground east of the Scioto's mouth after the earlier settlement of Alexandria kept flooding.

Massie named the town for Portsmouth, New Hampshire — the hometown of his friend Josiah Shackford.

Long before the city existed, the site was a Native American ceremonial center: the Portsmouth Earthworks were built by the Ohio Hopewell culture between about 100 BC and AD 500.

The population of Portsmouth was 18,252 at the 2020 census, down from a peak of about 42,000 residents in 1930.

Portsmouth has around 7,334 households, and fewer than half of its homes — about 48% — are owner-occupied.

The Ohio River flood of 1937 submerged two-thirds of Portsmouth, and the city answered with a massive floodwall that was completed in 1948.

Since 1993, artist Robert Dafford has painted more than 60 murals, each 20 feet tall, stretching over 2,000 feet along that floodwall in the Boneyfiddle Historic District — an outdoor gallery of the city's history.

Portsmouth is home to Shawnee State University, established in 1986.

Spartan Municipal Stadium, which opened in 1930, was the original home of the Portsmouth Spartans — the professional football franchise that became the Detroit Lions.