1900s

Old Grafton County Courthouse, Plymouth, NH

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The Old Grafton County Courthouse on Court Street in Plymouth, around 1900-1910 during its use as a library. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The building in 2018:

Over the years, this building has served a variety of purposes in several different locations.  It was built in 1774 as one of two courthouses in Grafton County, and was located at the corner of Russell and Pleasant Streets, less than a quarter mile from where it is today.  During its time as a courthouse, 24 year old New Hampshire native Daniel Webster argued one of his first court cases here in 1806.  He lost, and his client was hanged, but he would nonetheless go on to be a successful lawyer and one of the country’s most powerful politicians of the pre-Civil War era.

While Webster’s career was just beginning, the old courthouse was becoming obsolete, and in 1823 it was replaced by a more substantial brick building.  The old building was moved south of the main village and used as a wheelwright shop, as seen in the photo below, which was taken in 1860 and published in History of Plymouth, New Hampshire (1906):

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By the 1870s, the century-old building had been abandoned and was in disrepair, but its connection to Daniel Webster’s early career brought it to the attention of Henry W. Blair, a Congressman and future Senator who purchased it in 1876.  After moving it to its present location and renovating it, Blair gave the building to the Young Ladies’ Library Association to use as a public library.  The small building was home to Plymouth’s library until 1991, when the present-day Pease Public Library was built.  Since then, the historic building has been home to the Plymouth Historical Museum.

Plymouth Normal School, Plymouth, NH

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Rounds Hall at the Plymouth Normal School, around 1907. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The building in 2018, now part of Plymouth State University:

The history of Plymouth State University goes back to 1808, when the Holmes Plymouth Academy was established as a training school for teachers.  In 1871, the state took over the school and renamed it the Plymouth Normal School, with “normal” in this sense referring to training teachers.  Like many other normal schools in the country, it went through a series of name changes as the school expanded and added more academic programs.  From 1939 to 1963, it was the Plymouth Teachers College, and from 1963 to 2003 it was Plymouth State College before again being renamed as Plymouth State University.

The building in both photos is Rounds Hall, which was built in 1890 along with a dormitory, which can be seen beyond and just to the left of Rounds Hall in the 1907 photo.  Rounds Hall still stands today, and is the oldest building on campus.  However, Normal Hall, the old dormitory, didn’t last too long.  Not long after the first photo was taken, the barely 20 year old building was in such poor condition that it had to be demolished.  Its replacement, Mary Lyon Hall, was built on the same spot in 1916,  is still used as a dormitory today; it can be seen in the distance beyond the trees.

Lakefront at Center Harbor, NH

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Looking east toward Lake Winnipesaukee from Main Street in Center Harbor, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The same view in 2015:

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These photos were taken from the same spot as the ones in the previous post, just a little to the right.  The original photos were probably intended to form a panoramic view, because the right side of the other photo and the left side of this one fit together seamlessly.  Center Harbor has long been a popular vacation spot, and the 1906 photo shows cottages and boathouses along the lake.  However, it is also interesting to see corn growing on prime lakefront real estate. Today, this property has been developed, and the Whittier Highway now passes through part of the former cornfield.  The stone wall, which can be seen here and also in this post, once ran along the road for a considerable distance to the south.  Today, much of it is gone, including the section here, which was removed to build the short cross street that connects the Whittier Highway with Main Street.  Further south there are some surviving remnants of the stone wall, although the farmland that it once enclosed has long since disappeared.

Main Street, Center Harbor, NH

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Looking northeast on Main Street in Center Harbor, with Red Hill in the distance, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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Main Street in 2015:

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This scene was taken just up the road from the photos in this post; note the Center Harbor Congregational Church, which can be seen in the distance there and on the left here.  The church was built in 1838 and has stood there ever since, overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee.  The cemetery across the street is also still there, and if it wasn’t for the trees in the first photo, the Colonial Hotel would be visible beyond the cemetery on the right.  In the background of both photos is Red Hill, which rises 1500 feet above Lake Winnipesaukee and offers dramatic views of the surrounding landscape.

Over the years, the roads here have changed a bit.  In the 1906 photo, Main Street was the primary route from Meredith to Center Harbor, Moultonborough, and points north.  Today, most of this traffic travels on Route 25, which can be seen on the far right of the 2015 photo.  It is named the Whittier Highway, after poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who used to vacation in Center Harbor in the late 1800s.  Built parallel to Main Street, it cuts across the area where the Colonial Hotel once stood and allows through traffic to bypass much of the center of the village.

Center Harbor, NH

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Looking north on present-day Route 25 toward Center Harbor, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2015:

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As mentioned in some of the earlier Lake Winnipesaukee posts, when the first photo was taken the primary method of transportation to and around the lake was by railroad and/or steamboat.  In 1906, automobile ownership was still fairly rare, and the roads were not particularly well-suited for them, especially here in northern New England.  This road actually doesn’t look too bad, although at this point nearly all of the road traffic would have been horse-drawn carriages.  The Colonial Hotel is visible in the distance, and most of its guests would have arrived by the S.S. Mount Washington; the steamboat landing was just out of sight on the far right of the photo.

Today, the road is now Route 25, and it is a major route around the western end of Lake Winnipesaukee.  The Colonial Hotel has been gone for nearly a century, having been completely destroyed in a 1919 fire.  The house in the foreground must have been built soon after the first photo was taken, because its architectural style was common in the early 1900s.  The house and the trees now obscure the view of Red Hill from here, so only two identifiable features are visible in both photos: the Center Harbor Congregational Church, which is visible in the distance on the left, and parts of the old stone wall, which can barely be seen in the distance between the last two vehicles.

Colonial Hotel, Center Harbor, NH (2)

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Another view of the Colonial Hotel, taken around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The scene in 2015:

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As mentioned in the previous post, the Colonial Hotel was built as the Senter House around 1890, and in 1904 it was sold and renamed.  The hotel offered commanding views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the mountains beyond it, and was a popular destination in New Hampshire’s era of grand hotels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  However, like many of its contemporaries, the Colonial House was destroyed by a fire on June 20, 1919.  Today, Route 25 passes through part of what was once the hotel’s property, and the only structure on the site is the bandstand, seen on the far left of the 2015 photo.