Penacook, originally called "Fisherville", is a village within the city of Concord in Merrimack County,

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, United States. It lies along Concord's northern border with Boscawen. The name comes from the

Pennacook The Pennacook, also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock, were Algonquian Indigenous people who lived in what is now Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. They were not a united tribe but a network of politically and culturally ...

tribe that lived in the area. "Penacook" (''Pennycook'') was the original name of the plantation incorporated by present-day Concord. Penacook is located along a stretch of the

Contoocook River The Contoocook River () is a river in New Hampshire. It flows from Contoocook Lake on the Jaffrey/ Rindge border to Penacook (just north of Concord), where it empties into the Merrimack River. It is one of only a few rivers in New Hampshire th ...

that falls in slightly over , just before joining 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 M ...

. Early hydro-powered industry was attracted to the site, and Penacook grew as a

mill town A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more List of types of mill#Manufacturing facilities, mills or factories, often cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe ...

. While dams on the river still generate

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

, most of the 19th- and 20th-century factories, such as Allied Leather, have long since closed. Penacook has its own phone exchange (753), which includes a portion of Boscawen, and its own ZIP Code (03303), shared with Boscawen, Webster, and parts of northern Concord east of the Merrimack River. Most of Penacook is located in the

Merrimack Valley The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those ...

School District, though part is in the Concord School District.

Notable person

Red Rolfe Robert Abial "Red" Rolfe (October 17, 1908 – July 8, 1969) was an American baseball third baseman, manager (baseball), manager and front-office executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the New York Yankees from 1931 to 194 ...

, third baseman for

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

athletic directorEx-Yankee Red Rolfe succumbs
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Gallery

Village Street from Exchange Block, Penacook, NH.jpg, Village Street in 1911 Penacook, N.H. (2675830552).jpg, Print of Penacook by L. R. Burleigh with listings of landmarks

References

External links

Penacook Village Association

Penacook Historical Society
{{authority control Concord, New Hampshire New Hampshire placenames of Native American origin New Hampshire populated places on the Merrimack River Unincorporated communities in Merrimack County, New Hampshire Unincorporated communities in New Hampshire