Roy Rogers is painted on the floodwall in Portsmouth, Ohio, on the same stretch of concrete as Hopewell mound builders and the boats of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The wall went up after the Ohio River flood of 1937 to protect downtown, and the old commercial streets of the Boneyfiddle district are directly behind it. A new couple can spend an entire evening exploring these romantic first date spots in Portsmouth without getting back in the car.
The Floodwall Murals
Robert Dafford, a professional muralist, began painting the floodwall in the 1990s with help from local artists Herb Roe and Michael Doherty. The first 60 murals took about 10 summers, with each one averaging roughly 3 weeks of work, and 5 more were added later. Most segments are 40 feet wide and 20 feet high, and together the first 60 cover about half a mile.
The panels follow more than 2,000 years of local history in order, from the Hopewell earthworks to the town’s famous residents. A walk from end to end is an easy opening for a first date. There is something new to talk about every 40 feet, and nobody has to keep to a schedule.
The Portsmouth Brewing Company
A pint in the taproom after work is a low-key start, and there is enough history in the building to talk about for the first half hour. German brewers Thomas Heinrich Muhlhauser and Jakob Schiele founded the brewery in 1843, and it moved into its current red brick building at 224 Second Street in 1880. That building is the oldest standing brewery in Ohio. Under German immigrant Julius Esselborn and his son Paul, the company grew to more than 20,000 barrels a year. The business survived the state’s Rose Law closures of 1909 to 1911 and national Prohibition in 1919, and it has operated under its original name since Steven H. Mault took it over in 1995.
For couples who prefer a relaxed setting, sharing a drink here can be an easy way to start a conversation before exploring the nearby streets.
Spartan Municipal Stadium
The stadium opened on September 14, 1930, when the Portsmouth Spartans beat the Newark Tornadoes for their first win in the National Football League. The Spartans played there until 1933. The franchise was sold the following year, moved to Detroit and became the Detroit Lions, which left Portsmouth as the last small Ohio town with an NFL team. The state designated the stadium a historical site on October 5, 2003.
Notre Dame High School plays its home football games there now, on grass under lighting upgraded with a federal grant.
At a Friday night game in the fall, a pause in the conversation goes unnoticed while the teams play. The city transferred the stadium to Shawnee State University in 2024, and the university plans to field its own football team there from 2028.
Oddfellows
Oddfellows is in a 3-story building from the mid-1800s at 526 Second Street, inside the Boneyfiddle Historic Block. It serves pizza and chicken wings from a custom-tiled wood-fired oven, and the building also has duckpin bowling lanes and an old-fashioned arcade in the back room. It stays open until 10 on Friday and Saturday nights and until 9 the rest of the week.
Bowling keeps a new couple’s hands busy while they talk, which helps while the conversation is still stiff. The new couple at the next lane might be 2 students from Shawnee State, a pair of divorced parents dating again, or a sugar daddy and the woman he has recently started seeing. The lanes work the same way for all of them. Nobody needs to be good at bowling for the game to fill an evening, and a bad score is its own topic.
The Southern Ohio Museum
Shoe manufacturer George D. Selby built the museum’s home in 1918 as the Security Savings Bank and Trust Company, in the Beaux Arts style. The bank moved out in the 1970s, and the building at 825 Gallia Street opened as the Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center in 1979. The conversion started with a bequest of art from Dr. Russell Leiter, and Edmund J. Kricker of First Federal Savings and Loan gave the first $100,000 to begin operations. It has a permanent exhibit of work by Clarence Holbrook Carter, a Portsmouth native who painted in the American Scene style.
The second permanent exhibit, Art of the Ancients, includes more than 10,000 prehistoric Native American objects. A couple who walked the murals on an earlier date will recognize the Hopewell period from the wall. The building also contains a live performance theater, so it can serve as a stop on a second date as well.
The Vern Riffe Center for the Arts
With tickets to a show, the evening has a fixed end time, which takes some pressure off a date that is only a few meetings old, and dinner afterward can start with the performance. Shawnee State University’s arts center at 940 Second Street is a 102,000-square-foot building whose main hall, the Eloise Covert Smith Theater, has 1,137 seats. It also has a smaller studio theater and a recital hall, and the center hosts live music and theater productions through the year.
Mound Park
Mound Park contains the East Twin Horseshoe Mound and the Mound Park Conical Mound, the only parts of the Portsmouth Earthworks left inside the city limits. The Ohio Hopewell culture built the earthworks between about 100 BCE and 500 CE, and the full complex once extended about 8 miles along both banks of the Ohio River at the mouth of the Scioto. Former landowner Simon Labold gave the land to the city on condition that it remain a park and preserve the mounds.
Besides the mounds, Mound Park has basketball and baseball courts and a pickleball club, placed where archaeological surveys showed they would not damage the earthworks. That planning earned the park a Preservation Merit Award from the Ohio History Connection in 2024. A walk around the 2 mounds is a short addition to an evening downtown, particularly for couples who prefer a quiet outdoor date.
Shawnee State Park
This is the place for a longer date once a couple is past the first few meetings, and a morning hike followed by lunch at the lodge is a full day that requires no dressing up. West of Portsmouth, the 63,747-acre Shawnee State Forest surrounds a 1,095-acre state park. The forest began in 1922, when the state bought 5,000 acres that had been cut over for timber, and nearly 8,000 acres of it are now designated wilderness. The park lodge opened in January 1973. Roosevelt Lake and Turkey Creek Lake are both open for fishing and boating, and the Civilian Conservation Corps improved much of the land in the 1930s.
The Roy Rogers Panel
Robert Dafford has said the bare wall looked like a prison wall before the floodwall murals went up. The wall was built to keep the river out, and the murals were meant in part to paint back the river views it blocked. A couple who ends a first date at the Roy Rogers panel is standing at the same concrete, now covered in 2,000 years of local history, with the Ohio River on the other side.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some affordable first date ideas in Portsmouth, Ohio?
Walking along the Portsmouth Floodwall Murals or exploring Mound Park can make an affordable first date. Both offer opportunities to talk without planning an expensive evening.
Where can new couples go for a fun indoor date in Portsmouth?
Oddfellows offers duckpin bowling, arcade games, and food, while the Southern Ohio Museum provides a quieter indoor option. The Vern Riffe Center for the Arts is another choice when a performance is scheduled. The new Rave Cave creates an Experience and vibe with the simple phrase: Every Body Belongs. It’s an immersive experience that allows you to freely express yourself in what many call a Living Art Experience.
What are some romantic outdoor date spots near Portsmouth?
The Floodwall Murals and Mound Park are suitable for shorter outings, while Shawnee State Park offers hiking, lakes, and scenic surroundings for couples planning a longer date.
