The Concord Historic District encompasses the least altered portion of the historic heart of

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

. The district, located just north of the modern commercial and civic heart of the city, includes the city's oldest surviving house, the site of its first religious meetinghouse, and the

Pierce Manse The Pierce Manse is a historic house museum located in Concord, New Hampshire. It was the home of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, who lived there from 1842 to 1848, not long before his presidency. Overview Franklin ...

, a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

that was home to President

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...

during his rise to national prominence. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1975. The original heart of Concord was platted out in 1726, on a terrace above the floodplains on the western banks of the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...

. The lots, about in size, were arrayed in the vicinity of Horseshoe Pond, and it is the earliest of these that make up the district. The area is characterized by a uniformity of setting, despite a diversity in architectural style, in part because most of the buildings are similarly-sized dwellings set on equal-sized lots. Larger buildings, including a church, school, and professional offices, stand on larger lots. The oldest surviving house, that of Reverend Timothy Walker, was built in 1735. It was also the first house in the area to be garrisoned (fortified and surrounded by a palisade) against Native attacks. The district was also home to Concord's first meeting house (no longer extant). The residential structures in the district represent the variety of architectural styles popular during the 19th century, including the fine Greek Revival Pierce Manse, a Victorian Gothic cottage at 278 North Main Street, and the late Gothic brick house at 266 North Main Street. There are only a few buildings in the district built after the 1920s, among them the Lutheran church.

References

{{NRHP in Merrimack County, New Hampshire Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Georgian architecture in New Hampshire Federal architecture in New Hampshire Greek Revival architecture in New Hampshire Concord, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Concord, New Hampshire

See also

References