City: Alt. 220, pop. 76,834, sett. 1722, incorp. 1846.
Railroad Stations: B. & M. R.R., Union Station, cor. of Canal and Granite Sts. East Manchester Station, cor. Massabesic and Cypress Sts.
Bus Stations: B. & M. Transp. Co., Hotel Carpenter, Franklin and Merrimack Sts., Rice-Varick Hotel, Merrimack St., B. & M. Union Station; Checker Cab Co., Terminal, 15 Stark St., Rice-Varick Hotel; Champlain Frontier Coach Line, Hotel Carpenter, and 797 Elm St.; Capitol Stages, Checker Cab Terminal, Hotel Carpenter, Floyd Hotel, 614 Elm St., Marshall’s Drug Store, 24 So. Main St., W. Manchester; Grey Lines, 797 Elm St., 20 Merrimack St., Marshall’s Drug Store.
Airport: Municipal airport, 5.3 m. south of city, B.-M. — Central Vermont
Airways; taxi fare, 50¢, time 15 min.
Street cars: All sections of city covered adequately.
Taxis: 35¢ for first ⅓ mile; 10¢ each additional third.
Accommodations: Six hotels.
Information Service: Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 57 Market St.; E. entrance of Queen City Bridge (summer months only).
Swimming: Municipal pools; Rock Rimmon, north end of Alsace St., West Manchester; Livingston Park Pool, Livingston Park (formerly Dorr’s Pond), near junction of Beach and Webster Sts.
Annual Event: Winter carnival, February.
MANCHESTER, industrial metropolis of the State, rises from both banks of the Merrimack to the heights beyond, loosely encircled by New Hampshire hills and surrounded by serene, white-steepled New Hampshire towns. Old in point of years, it carries no suggestions of the past, but seems to have sprung into being within the past half century.
Industry has cut the pattern of Manchester. Its mills, first the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company that once owned the largest cotton mills in the world, and then hundreds of smaller industries, drew workers from all parts of the world. Since they were housed largely in private homes within the city limits, Manchester is spread loosely over thirty-four square miles. Much of the city grew out of the property of the Amoskeag Company, which as early as 1838 built a town on paper. The city is now in possession of real estate worth about $2,500,000, given by the company, with complete title except that it may never use the land for other than civic purposes. The municipal buildings are all built on this land. The streets, laid out by the original plan, are broad and elm-shaded, and are lined by tenements as well as beautiful estates.
Although Manchester is a key city to Yankee territory, the native Americans are outnumbered three to one by French-Canadians, Greeks, Poles, and a dozen different races. The French-Canadians, with representatives from every other European country, constitute nearly forty per cent of the total population and exert a large influence upon the business, political, religious, and social life of Manchester. The last four mayors have been of French-Canadian descent. It is estimated that about one-half of the independent businesses are run by Franco-Americans, and approximately the same ratio holds true in the professions and the trades. Characteristic of this Franco-American group is the partiality for the ancestral tongue, customs, and churchly devotion. Clerks in many Manchester stores are able to speak both French and English. The Franco-Americans maintain eight churches and eight schools of their own. The leading French newspaper, L’Avenir National, has a circulation of 2500. Among their many organizations are the Snowshoe Clubs with a membership of more than four hundred. These clubs are found only in New England and Canada and, while originally organized for sport, are now largely social. They are most picturesque on song and festal days, when each club wears its own colors and costumes. They recall the ‘Coureurs de Bois’ of the Colonial Wars, who were equipped with uniforms adapted to the rigorous Canadian winter. The first French-Canadians were probably drawn to Derryfield (Manchester) from Quebec in the early nineteenth century by the prospect of better wages and a preference for industrial work rather than farming. Prosperity in the textile and shoe industries during the Civil War and in the years following added impetus to the drift southward, whole families coming in by the trainload. Agents of the Amoskeag Mills recruited them in the Provinces. French people from France and Franco-Belgium increased the French population.
The Greeks own more than a million dollars’ worth of real estate in Manchester, mostly in homesteads. Besides this, 232 mercantile establishments are owned and operated by them. Four Greek institutions have sprung up here in the Macedonian quarter of the city: two Greek Orthodox churches and two Greek schools. A Greek newspaper, Ergatis, is published. In the vicinity of Spruce Street, where there are nine Greek coffee-houses and two sweet-shops, men gather in groups playing cards, drinking Greek coffee, and discussing current problems. The sweet-shops are picturesque places, especially during the holiday season when the various Greek and Oriental pastries such as locum (Turkish delight) and bachlavah are on display in the windows of the shops.
Although the Irish settled in Manchester at an early date, their number was greatly augmented by the potato famine of 1845 in Ireland, and today exceeds 7000.
The majority of the Poles in the city came from Galicia, Poland, to escape Austrian persecution. Though they have not abandoned their folk-songs, dances, and customs, they are well assimilated and active politically. One of the leading parks, known for nearly a century as Tremont Common, was changed to ‘Pulaski Common’ in 1933. Here was placed a statue of Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski, Polish hero of the Revolutionary War, the sculptor being Lucien Gosselin, a native of Manchester.
Manchester is the financial and commercial center of the State, home of more than one-fifth of the State’s population. Manchester’s industries in 1936 numbered 160, 83 of which were established after 1920, and produced 150 different articles. It is an important shoe center occupying fourth place among the cities of the country in their production.
An interesting feature of Manchester life is its Thursday Evening, when its shopping streets, especially Elm Street, take on an almost metropolitan character with crowds of people on the sidewalks. It is a colorful and gay promenade of mill workers and others dressed in their best. Stores and even banks are open. The occasion is a survival of payday which formerly occurred on Thursday.
The region now occupied by Manchester was a rendezvous for the Indians long before white men were drawn to it. Amoskeag Falls was one of their favorite fishing grounds. The celebrated chief, Passaconaway of the Penacook tribe, and the sachem, Wonalancet, made their home here a good share of the time. Upon the bluffs east of the falls was a large Indian village and there about 1650 John Eliot, the English ‘Apostle to the Indians,’ conducted a school, preached to them, and taught them to pray.
It was not until 1636 that the white men sent out by Governor Winthrop came into the Merrimack valley to explore it. Until 1703 the region about the falls was visited only by hunters, fishers, and trappers. That year Captain William Tyng and thirty-six men, known as the ‘snowshoe men,’ came from Dunstable (now Nashua) and passing by the falls were attracted to the region.
The first settlement within the present city boundaries was made in 1722 by John Goffe, Jr., Edward Lingfield, and Benjamin Kidder, who came from the Massachusetts Colony and established themselves on Cohas Brook at the falls in the southern part of the city which bear Goffe’s name. Between 1733 and 1736, John McNeil, John Riddle, and Archibald Stark, the father of Manchester’s most famous son, John Stark, came from Nutfield and settled near Amoskeag Falls. Previously known as ‘Old Harrytown’ (after a local Indian of unsavory charácter), it became ‘Tyngstown’ when granted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735 to Tyng’s men. The territory included a strip of land eight miles wide on the east bank of the Merrimack and extending from Litchfield to Suncook, including the present business section of Manchester. Six years later, by a decision of the King of England and his Council, Tyngstown passed to the jurisdiction of New Hampshire authorities. In 1751, the occupants of the settlement petitioned Governor Benning Wentworth for a town charter, which was granted as ‘Derryfield’ and included parts of present-day Chester and Londonderry, as well as the region along the river.
In the years that followed John Stark and his Derryfield men won distinction not only in exploits against the Indians within the State, but against the French at Crown Point and Lake George in 1755, at Bunker Hill in 1776 — in his regiment were thirty-six of the thirty-eight able-bodied men of the town — and at Bennington, Vermont, in 1777. General Stark is buried in the park which bears his name in the northern part of the city.
At the close of the war, Goffe’s Town on the west bank of the river had accumulated double the number of families in Derryfield. In 1792, a toll bridge was built at a cost of $6000 to connect the two towns.
To Judge Samuel Blodgett is given credit for changing the name of the town from Derryfield to Manchester in 1810. Following a visit to the English manufacturing city, he visualized Derryfield’s future industrial importance and prophesied that it would become the Manchester of New England. At that time it had a population of 615. In 1846, when its population was 10,125, the city received its charter. In 1853, the village of Amoskeag, a part of Goffstown, and the village of Squog, a part of Bedford, were annexed by Manchester, the latter thus acquiring valuable territory on both sides of the Merrimack.
Manchester cannot be characterized apart from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, so deep is its mark upon the city. Its mills, now in other hands, for over a hundred years formed the back-log of the city’s development. The sixty-four mill buildings of this once gigantic corporation line both sides of the Merrimack River for a mile and a half, while the company-owned homes for the workers, attractive if somewhat old-fashioned brick apartment houses, with little garden plots, run in three parallel rows on the east bank.
The industrial development of the Amoskeag Falls was envisioned by Judge Samuel Blodgett, who conceived the idea of building a canal around them in 1793. Massachusetts had her Middlesex Canal, and with Blodgett’s canal, navigation by water would be greatly facilitated, and power would be available for industry. With money raised by lotteries the canal was completed in 1807.
In 1805, Benjamin Prichard, who, two years earlier, had unsuccessfully operated a small cotton factory in his native town of New Ipswich, purchased a small mill near the Falls and began the manufacture of cotton on a very small scale. After five years of difficulty, the mill was reorganized as the Amoskeag Cotton and Woolen Factory. Only fifty-five shares were divided among the twenty holders, and of these Benjamin Prichard held twenty-five. In addition he received $800 for his mill and the rights pertaining to it.
Labor conditions in this first mill were very poor. Until 1819 all the weaving was done in the houses of the workers on hand looms, and a skilled weaver earned about thirty-five cents a day. When the power loom was introduced later, the workers moved into the mill. No woman employee was paid more than a dollar a week at this period.
Despite enlargement of the mill, however, the company was not a success, and in 1822 it was sold to Olney Robinson for $2000. Conditions in 1831 led to a reincorporation of the company by a group of Boston financiers with a capital of $1,000,000. The name then chosen, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, was kept until 1936.
In the period from 1832 to 1922 the story of the mills was one of continued expansion. Competing mills along the Merrimack were purchased and absorbed; other mills were erected, until the present gigantic plant assumed its final shape, under the control of financiers in Boston and New York.
Boyden Sparks in an article in the Saturday Evening Post (1936) on the Amoskeag wrote:
The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was Gargantuan. The workers used to boast that every two months they made enough cloth to put a band around the world. This was literally true, more than 5,000,000 yards were shipped out week by week in good years and in the best years of these old cloth mills, a great deal more than that. For several miles below the Amoskeag Falls, along the banks of the Merrimack River, its double and triple line of six-story red-brick buildings is ranged. Each mill, if placed on end would be a skyscraper. But when they were alive with the hum and clatter of nearly 700,000 spindles and about 23,000 looms they really seemed to be a single throbbing organism, a beneficent monster, out of which the people got their living.
In the course of its hundred years of life, this potent organism out of which had grown the city of Manchester paid out about $265,000,000 in wages, it paid millions in taxes and many more millions in profits. There were years when the pay roll averaged $300,000 a week; in lesser years it was about $120,000.
The continued expansion of the mills in the nineteenth century, through building new mills and buying out others, made it the largest cotton manufacturing company in the world. By 1924 it had accumulated a cash surplus of more than $30,000,000 and was described as a tribute to ‘New England initiative, management, and conservatism at its best.’
The same year (1922) that saw the purchase by Amoskeag of its one remaining competitor, the Stark Mills, witnessed the slowing down of its triumphant progress as difficulties began to multiply. It had been built up to its imposing structure by a reinvestment of earnings; but under absentee ownership the machinery was allowed to become obsolescent, and it was unable to adapt itself to a changing market. For decades the ability to dominate the gingham market had been the bulwark of the business. When women began to wear silk and rayon, Amoskeag began to pile up deficits. Southern mills paying lower wages began to make in-roads. Shrinking markets and foreign competition affected the cotton industry as a whole. Labor troubles resulted as the workers resisted efforts to force their low wages still lower (see Industry, Commerce, and Labor), and the business of the company dwindled still further. From 1922 to 1935, the company had its ups and downs, and in the latter year it closed its doors and filed a voluntary petition of bankruptcy.
After 1935 the discharged workers continued to live in the company houses because they could go nowhere else. The company collected no rent from them, but listed it among its assets. Those workers who did not find employment elsewhere were later supported either by direct relief or by Works Progress Administration projects.
To prevent the mills being stripped of their machinery and other movable assets by outside concerns, leaving Manchester nothing but the empty shell of a great industry, a group of Manchester citizens formed the Amoskeag Industries, Inc., and purchased the mills for $5,000,000. In early 1937, they had leased several of the largest mills to the Pacific Mills, Inc., who are employing a small number of the Amoskeag workers, and were negotiating with representatives of similar companies for other units.
TOUR 1 — 0.3 m.
The City Hall, NW. corner of Elm and Market Sts., is at the heart of the business and financial district. Busy, broad Elm St., crowded with traffic and pedestrians, is flanked by substantial business blocks.
E. from City Hall on Hanover St.; L. from Hanover St. on Chestnut St.
1. Victory Park, enclosing a section between Amherst, Pine, Concord, and Vine Sts., about which are grouped a number of Manchester’s most notable institutions, is one of the city’s 17 recreation grounds. The World War Memorial, dominating the Park, is the work of the sculptor Lucien Gosselin, of Manchester.
R. from Chestnut St. on Amherst St.
2. The Manchester Historic Association Building (open Tues., Thurs., and Sat., 2–4, free), cor. Pine and Amherst Sts. (R), an imposing structure of New Hampshire granite given by Frank P. Carpenter (1931), contains a large and varied historical collection, including many relics of General John Stark and his family, Indian collections and relics of the various wars, collections of portraits, china, pewter, glassware and silverware, and an historical library of 5000 volumes and pamphlets.
Opening from the corridor, which extends through the center of the building, is (R) the Old Locomotive and Steam Fire Engine Room, a small exhibit with old-time prints, photographs, etc., of locomotives and steam fire engines.
Across the corridor is the Old Amoskeag and Early Industrial Room, with many prints, photographs, sample books of print cloth, paintings, and relics pertaining to the early mills and industries of Manchester.
At the west end of the corridor is Stark Hall, containing the pictures, paintings, furniture, and personal relics of General John Stark and his family. Another feature of Stark Hall is a collection of prints and paintings of ex-President Franklin Pierce. There are also extensive collections relating to American wars.
Through the corridor (R) is the Old Print Room, with an extensive collection of Currier and Ives and other old-time prints.
At the extreme east end of the building is Derryfield Hall, containing many prints, photographs, paintings, and other pictures of Manchester buildings. A display of Indian relics is contained in several cases.
On the second floor a small corridor has a collection of early American primitives. Right is Manchester Hall, with portraits of Manchester’s earlier citizens. There are alcoves used by the library, and others with displays of antique furniture and ladies’ handiwork, antique toys and dolls, antique china, silver, pewter, glass, and early lighting appliances.
At the west end of the corridor is New Hampshire Hall, containing a military display including firearms, swords, sabers, and small arms.
Opening from this corridor is Presidential Hall, with many prints and pictures relating to the Presidents, two original copies of an Amherst, New Hampshire, newspaper of December, 1799, and January, 1800, giving an account of the death and funeral of George Washington.
In the basement is Hubbard Hall, or the Hall of Primitives, its chief exhibit the old hand fire engine, ‘Torrent,’ purchased by the town of Manchester in 1844. Here are various exhibits, including an old printing press, a small older press, early types of sewing machines, spinning wheels, flax wheel, and clock reels, an old shoemaker’s bench, and an Indian dugout.
Scattered about the building in the various halls are many of the famed Rogers Groups of miniature statuary, the modeling of which was started by John Rogers in the city of Manchester (see The Arts).
L. from Amherst St. on Pine St.
3. Carpenter Memorial Library (open weekdays, 9–9), 405 Pine St. (R), a gift of Frank P. Carpenter in memory of his wife, contains 115,000 volumes. The two-story building, erected in 1914 and designed by Edward L. Tilton of New York, is constructed of Vermont marble in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
In 1795, a group of citizens in Derryfield, among whom were Isaac Huse, James Weston, John Stark, Jr., and other prominent men, founded the Social Library of Derryfield, which continued to function until 1833 when it was dissolved and the books were divided among its members. After a lapse of 11 years another group of prominent men in Manchester founded the Manchester Atheneum, consisting of a reading-room, library, and museum, which in 1854 was transferred gratuitously to the city by a special act of the Legislature.
4. Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences (open weekdays, 9–5; Mon., 2–5), cor. Pine and Concord Sts. (L), a privately endowed institution founded on a gift from Emma Blood French, is housed in a two-story building of New Hampshire granite. The exterior is severely plain, its only architectural embellishment being a rounded bay supported on Corinthian columns and serving as the portico. The interior is finished with silvery, weathered oak walls and marble floors. The institute affords opportunity for instruction in languages, literature, domestic sciences, handicraft, music, and fine arts at a nominal charge, and provides excellent lecture courses. A four-year normal art course is given, while social science departments promote discussions of current problems. On display in the foyer are hand-made articles of The Craftworker’s Guild, an institute organization, including splendid workmanship in carving, tooled and incised leather, metal work in silver, pewter, and copper, embroidery, tapestry, and hand-woven fabrics and rugs.
L. from Pine St. on Concord St.
5. The Association Canado-Américaine Building, 52 Concord St., a granite and brick structure with the eaves pediment supported on Corinthian columns, houses a library of more than 4000 volumes dealing with the development of the French race in North America. It includes the noteworthy Lambert collection, that has among other priceless editions ‘Hennepin’s Nouvelle Découverte d’un Grand Pays l’Amérique,’ printed in Amsterdam in 1698, and ‘Lettres de la Vénérable Mère Marie de L’Incarnation, Première Supérieure des Ursulines de la Nouvelle-France,’ printed in Paris in 1681.
The Association Canado-Américaine, founded in 1898 to include all independent Franco-American Societies, became the mother of Franco-American National Federative Societies in New England. It has a membership of more than 16,000 in New England, Michigan, and Canada.
L. from Concord St. on Pine St.; R. from Pine St. on Orange St.
6. Currier Art Gallery (open weekdays, 10–5; Sun., 2–5; free), Orange and Beech Sts., a massive structure designed by Tilden and Githens of New York in 1927, is one of Manchester’s most beautiful buildings. In a setting of pines and old hemlocks and bordering a shallow reflecting pool, it is designed with the classic dignity and grandeur of the Italian Renaissance style. The main entrance is recessed behind a heavy vestibule, whose plain Doric columns support an unadorned entablature and a denticulated cornice, which in a simpler form continues around the building. Above this is a short frieze with winged griffons flanking the inscription tablet. Within the vestibule are mosaic designs, that on the left of the door symbolizing the pagan art of the Classical world, and that on the right representing Christian art through five figures symbolizing the Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and modern modes. Over the door is a panel, the ‘Fountain of Inspiration.’ The mosaics are the work of Salvatore Lascari of New York City and were assembled in Venice, Italy.
The galleries of the museum are built around a central court, open to the top of the building and surrounded by arcades. The ceiling of the court is decorated in a pattern of Italian Renaissance design, executed by Mr. Lascari. The modified Ionic columns supporting the upper arcades are soft buff, with capitals picked out in colors and gold. The mosaic floor of the open court has the signs of the zodiac in black and cream for the central feature and geometric patterns for subordinate designs. A fountain basin, with a bronze figure of a girl, designed by Harriet Frish-muth, adds to the charm of the court.
On the first floor and to the right are the galleries devoted to sculpture, largely a collection of casts of Greek and Roman works, and the children’s room.
Directly across the court is a large gallery devoted to Colonial furniture, glass, and pewter, and on one wall the notable Vaughan Wall Paper, taken from the Vaughan House in Thetford, Vermont, one of the finest examples in the United States of French wall paper of the early 19th century. The furniture is early New Hampshire, a chest of drawers being the work of Dunlap, master woodcarver. In the pewter collection every piece is signed and of American origin. The Sandwich glass collection includes 400 plates. Six striking examples of the pale green Suncook glass, rarest of American glassware, are on display.
On the mezzanine between the marble stairs is the memorial room to Governor and Mrs. Moody Currier, whose generosity provided for the building and its maintenance.
On the second floor are three large galleries devoted to the exhibition of oils, water-colors, prints, and etchings. Two of the galleries are used to exhibit 50 to 60 loan collections a year. The museum also houses the George A. Leighton collection of 18th- and 19th-century Dutch, German, French, and English masters.
On the walls of the court arcade are examples of the work of Bouguereau, Raeburn, Copley, Stuart, and Winslow Homer. The collection of Chinese porcelains gathered by Rear Admiral Murdock when serving in Chinese waters is exhibited in the upper arcade. The Gallery possesses one of the two complete collections of Frank French wood engravings.
For the benefit of children free classes in the appreciation of art are given.
TOUR 2 — 6 m.
E. from Elm St. on Hanover St.; L. from Hanover St. on Belmont St.; R. from Belmont St. on Reservoir Ave.
7. The Old Town Pound, Reservoir Ave. (R), at the entrance to Derryfield Park, a crude square enclosure of large stones, was built in 1741 to impound stray animals. It has been restored by the Molly Stark Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
8. Derryfield Park has an area of 68 acres. Reservoir Avenue winding through the park leads to the summit of the hill on which are the Weston Observatory (open May to Sept.) and two reservoirs; the larger, completed with the help of Government funds, having a capacity of 8,000,000 gallons. From here is a splendid bird’s-eye view of the city and surrounding countryside. West lies the city itself, its streets in regular and far-flung lines sheltered by great elms, with its squares and parks, public buildings, business blocks, homes, gigantic mills, and shops rising from the banks of the Merrimack River. Across the river Rock Rimmon, a granite outcropping, stands out in rugged relief, and the Piscataquog River winds westward along through green fields. Beyond are the graceful, undulating lines of the twin Uncanoonuc (Ind.: ‘breasts’) Mountains. South are the Londonderry hills, forming the walls of the Merrimack, and north on a clear day the summits of the White Mountains are visible on the horizon. The effect is best in the morning. From the east side of the hill is a view of the western end of Lake Massabesic (see Tour 17, sec. a) from which Manchester’s water supply is derived.
Retrace on Reservoir Ave.; L. from Reservoir Ave. on Oak Hill Ave.; R. from Oak Hill Ave. on Mammoth Rd.
9. The Isaac Huse House (not open), cor. Mammoth Rd. and Candia Rd. (L), is a square, two-story house, with a gable roof and wide eaves, with carved corner posts and a square porch with Doric columns. The doorway is surrounded by three rectangular lights. In the rear are several later additions, but the front is one of the few remaining landmarks of the early settlement of Manchester by Scotch Presbyterians from Londonderry. Mammoth Road, built in 1831, was a post road and the main thoroughfare for travel north and south. In 1831, Samuel Jackson, who had a store in this house, was appointed Manchester’s first postmaster by Andrew Jackson, and maintained the post office here. Near-by is a Cemetery (L), where many of the earliest settlers are buried.
A large, unpainted house beyond the cemetery was the First Church, in Derryfield, built in 1758. The exterior of the structure is little changed, but the interior was altered for dwelling purposes many years ago.
Retrace on Mammoth Rd.; R. from Mammoth Rd. on Valley St.; L. from Valley St. on Maple St.
10. The J. F. McElwain Shoe Company (not open), Maple and Silver Sts., has several factories in the city, employing normally about 1600 workers. Established in 1922 by J. Franklin McElwain, Seward M. Paterson, and Francis P. Murphy, governor of New Hampshire, the company manufactures men’s and boys’ Goodyear welt shoes of medium grade, and is operator of a nation-wide chain of retail stores. The largest employer in New Hampshire, the company has expanded many times, and doubled its business during the 1929 depression. The company also operates several factories in Nashua.
R. from Maple St. on Silver St.; R. from Silver St. on Union St.; R. from Union St. on Valley St.; R. from Valley St. on Elm St.; L. from Elm St. on Granite St.; R. from Granite St. on Canal St.
11. The R. G. Sullivan 7–20–4 Cigar Factory, Canal and W. Central Sts. (R), a modern brick plant, turns out more than 65,000,000 cigars yearly and employs 560 workers. This concern is the largest payer of revenue to the United States Government in New England. Most of the cigars are made by machinery, but a superior type of Londres is still made by hand. Manchester has 28 other factories of varying sizes specializing in hand-made cigars.
12. Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, Canal St. (L), a mile of brick factories on the left bank of the canal, was once the largest textile mill in the world. Its buildings, two and sometimes three rows deep and mainly four or five stories high were built over a period of years from 1838 to 1915. They are severely plain and practical in appearance. Opposite them (R) are three rows of brick tenement houses, built about the same period as the mills. These are plain, three-story buildings, the two back rows slightly higher than the first, and the only variation occurs in the placing of some of them at right angles to the others. Around some of these houses are small plots of garden.
13. The Home of General John Stark (not open), cor. of Canal St. at the Amoskeag bridge (L), is a small wooden cottage marked by a boulder and a tablet erected by the Manchester Historical Association. The Amoskeag Bulletin describes the house as follows:
The house may be called plain, but it corresponds perfectly with the old Colonial houses of this time. The house faces the south, is a square low-posted affair with five large rooms on the ground floor and with two unfinished rooms in the second story. The very large rooms are finished off in typical Colonial style about like what may be seen at the Governor Wentworth House at Newcastle, N.H. The walls of each room are paneled, while the high oak mantels and the great fireplaces, with their primitive cupboards and warming seats are fit illustrations of what the house contains.
General John Stark, who lived here from 1758 to 1765, was one of the outstanding figures of the American Revolution. Born in Londonderry in 1728, Stark was taken prisoner by the Indians while hunting near Baker’s River in Rumney in 1752 (see Tour 10) and served later with Rogers’ Rangers in the Indian wars. When beacons were lighted upon New Hampshire hilltops, upon receipt of the news of the first bloodshed of the Revolution, John Stark was one of the first to spring to his horse and hasten to the scene of the conflict, rallying men on his way. He was appointed a colonel, and within four days 2000 New Hampshire men had reported to him for duty. According to the records, a large share of the troops engaged in actual fighting at the battle of Bunker Hill were from New Hampshire. The effective marksmanship of Stark’s men, their courage under fire, and their gallantry in covering the retreat of the other colonists turned a rout into a virtual victory, the moral effect of which was of vital importance. Although Stark served with such distinction at Bunker Hill and later under Washington at Trenton and Princeton, he resigned from the Continental Army in 1777 because he was passed over in the granting of promotions.
The house has been recently acquired by the Daughters of the American Revolution and will be open to the public.
With the capture of the fortress of Ticonderoga in 1777 by General Burgoyne’s British army, the leaders of the Revolution were panic-stricken. In desperation Vermont called on New Hampshire for assistance in repelling the invaders. The Council of New Hampshire raised a force of militia and volunteers and put Stark in command with the rank of General. With these untrained and undisciplined men Stark put to flight the regular soldiers and Hessians of the British army at the battle of Bennington after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle, ‘the hottest,’ Stark reported,’ I ever saw in my life.’ This event, in the language of President Jefferson, was ‘the first link in the chain of successes which issued in the surrender of Saratoga.’ In the meantime, Congress, not having heard of Stark’s astounding victory, had censured the New Hampshire Council, and indirectly Stark himself, for giving him this independent command. This they later offset by a vote of thanks and a commission of Brigadier General in the Continental Army.
Stark died in Manchester in 1822 at the ripe old age of ninety-three, the last surviving American general of the Revolution and outlived only by Lafayette.
Continue from Canal St. on North River Road.
14. Stark Park, North River Rd. (L), overlooking the Merrimack, is one of the most beautiful parks in the city and the last resting-place of General John Stark. A winding driveway through the Park leads to the enclosure where a simple obelisk bears his name.
Near the Park on Elliot Place is the former home of Alonzo Elliot, composer of the noted song of the Great War, ‘The Long, Long Trail.’
15. General Stark’s Well, North River Rd. (L), and a marker designating the Site of the Later Stark Homestead are further reminders of the domestic side of the General’s life. The original granite doorstone is preserved.
Outstanding Points of Interest in the Environs:
St. Anselm College, Shirley Hill Rd., 3 m. W.; Rock Rimmon, Alsace St., 1.5 m. W. (see Tour 16); Massabesic Lake, 4 m. E. (see Tour 17, sec. a).