Merry Christmas to all! I ran across this charming recollection in the archives and had to share it with all of you. Six year-old Evelyn Balcom moved to Peterborough in 1913 with her mother to lived with her uncle and aunt, William and Mary Farnsworth. They lived above the Farnsworth’s store on Main Street. Here […]
Holiday Gift Guide 2021 Let’s celebrate the region’s history and culture with gifts that have a local flavor! I love giving books for the holidays (or really, any occasion!) Here is my selection of the best local books to share with your loved ones this year. After each description, I have included a list of […]
You’re probably thinking, “Okay, Thornton Wilder is certainly a well-known person but who the heck is Fletcher Dole?” My guess is unless you grew up in Peterborough, NH in the middle of the 20th century you don’t know Fletcher Dole and how he was connected to Thornton Wilder. Here’s a hint — Howie Newsome. Here’s […]
A few weeks ago there was something on NH Chronicle about female pilots in New Hampshire. I immediately thought of Amelia Earhart, probably the most famous female pilot of all time, and wondered if she was ever in the Monadnock Region. She was. Here’s what we know… In the summer of 1931 Earhart and her husband, publisher George […]
A few years ago, I toured one of the most beautiful historic homes I’ve ever visited. It was the home on Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Clemens and his wife Olivia spent 17 years in this 25-room house in Hartford, CT, with their three daughters. At a desk in the corner of […]
A few years back I visited the boyhood home of Calvin Coolidge in Plymouth Notch, VT. While looking into Calvin’s parent’s sitting room, I could almost picture the morning of August 3, 1923, when Calvin’s father, a notary public, conducted the oath of office that would make his son our 30th president. The ceremony was […]
I wonder if any of you ever got to meet Julia Child during one of several trips she and her husband Paul made to the area in the 1980s and 1990s? The closest I ever got was a glimpse of her as she passed me in the hallway at South Meadow School in 1993, when […]
Before Covid forced many museums to temporarily close their doors, I had the chance to visit Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home in Concord, MA. Emerson and his second wife Lidian lived with their four children in their Concord house for 47 years. Upon purchasing the house in 1835, he wrote to his brother that he […]
Back in Time for Lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt While browsing through the 1936 issues of the Transcript, I came across a blurb about Eleanor Roosevelt driving through New Hampshire and stopping in Peterborough. That got me thinking about how I would have entertained Eleanor if I had the opportunity to meet her. Here’s what we […]
Back in Time for Dinner with Lavinia Warren (Mrs. Tom Thumb) I love looking through old copies of our local newspaper. You never know what you will find and often the advertisements are as interesting as the news articles. One ad that caught my eye was from the October 4, 1875 issue which promoted the […]
The Monadnock Center is CLOSED
Saturday, January 15, 2022
for the MLK Holiday weekend.
In the event of snowy or icy road conditions, we may decide to close.
Please call us at (603) 924-3235 to verify we are open before visiting.
Winter closures will be posted here and on our Facebook page.
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