Exeter's Folsom Tavern Added To NH Historic Places List

EXETER, NH -- Exeter's Folsom Tavern, where George Washington dined in 1789, is officially one of the most historic places in New Hampshire. The tavern was one of nine sites across the state added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places this month. Other sites selected include Concord's West Congregational Church, Wilder Farm in Alstead and Littleton Public Library.

"The new listings represent a broad range of buildings and sites that influenced their communities," the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources said in a statement.

Folsom Tavern was built during the American Revolution.

"Located near the center of downtown Exeter, it is part of the American Independence Museum and retains many of its original Georgian features, including symmetry, pediments, pilasters and wood paneling," the historical resources division said.

The properties added to the register are now eligible for grants. These are the other eight properties:

• "West Concord’s West Congregational Church has been in continuous use since it was completed in 1871. Built with granite from a local quarry, its Gothic Revival features include a corner tower entry with original round-arch double-leaf wooden doors and granite steps, as well as stained glass windows.
• Wilder Farm in Alstead is a classic Greek Revival example of a connected farm dating to the mid-nineteenth century; its freestanding brick smokehouse is an unusual feature. Charles Wilder, whose family owned the property from 1852-1948, was the subject of Elinor Whitney’s 1930 children’s book, 'Timothy and the Blue Cart.'
• Significant for its role in educating generations of students, the Chatham Center School, while the largest of the town’s schoolhouses, never enrolled more than 30 students at one time. Moved to its current location in 1957, the one and one-half story white clapboarded building has a corrugated metal roof and appears to have its original six-pane window sashes.
• The previously listed East Grafton Union Church property has been updated to include recognition of its Parsonage, a one and a half story Greek Revival house with a recessed entry that includes sidelights with transom.
• Lancaster’s Parker J. Noyes Building was home to one of the leading drug manufacturers in New England in the early twentieth century. A familiar building type on New Hampshire Main Streets, with commercial space on the first floor and offices and apartments above, its Italianate details reflect the ambition of Noyes, who invented the sugar-coating process for pills in 1894.
• Littleton Public Library has been instrumental in providing programming for the community’s children and adults, along with circulating books and other media, for generations. As part of his philanthropic support of libraries, Andrew Carnegie donated $15,000 to build the two-story brick Georgian Revival building, which opened to the public in 1906.
• Ira Miller’s General Store was once the largest general store in Milton Mills, stocking groceries, shoes, oil, drugs, hardware and farm implements. Its lunch counter with stools, bead board siding on the walls and ceiling and wood floors are still in place, as is a marble slab reading 'IRA MILLER' in a pediment above the second floor.
• The District 9 Schoolhouse in Sutton was built in 1863 to replace another school that was lost to fire that same year. It was the center of education for grades one through eight until 1945 and was used by seventh and eighth graders from 1949-1954, when a central school opened in Sutton Mills. Today, it serves the community as a museum open for Old Home Day and other special occasions."

Photo credit: American Independence Museum