The Monadnock Center’s Board of Directors is making a map for the center’s future. Won’t you take a minute to answer a few questions? Your thoughts and perspectives are valuable! All survey responses are completely anonymous. The Board will use the responses to guide their work in developing a new strategic plan for the Monadnock […]
We have a lot of precious things at the Monadnock Center but the most priceless are the thousands of people who come to the Center each year for concerts, programs, exhibits, and family events. Unfortunately, our life safety system is no longer up to the job of protecting our priceless visitors and precious objects. The […]
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 […]
The Monadnock Center is closed
on the following dates:
Saturday, November 11
Thursday, November 23
December 24, 2023 to January 2, 2024
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