Category: Archive

LACONIA — “The Belknap County Farm and Alms House” is the subject of a new exhibit, opening at 6 p.m.,  Tuesday, Sept. 24, on the Upper Level of the Laconia Public Library, co-sponsored by the Laconia Historical and Museum Society and the library.

Belknap County was set off from Strafford County in 1841, with the county Court House on Court Street, then in Gilford but which was annexed to the town of Laconia in 1874. The County Farm (now the County Complex, which also includes the County Jail, Sheriff’s Department and county commissioners’ offices) was located at approximately its current location, off North Main Street.

The exhibit will highlight the 19th and 20th Century evolution of the County Farm and Alms House., which LHMS Executive Director Pat Tierney calls “a  great story of regional compassion and local diligence.”

From its earliest beginnings, he says, county citizens and civic organizations “joined to create this New Hampshire institution which became a model for addressing not only agricultural excellence, but the humane and housing needs of many.”

Before today’s modern Belknap County facility, the farm “housed extensive livestock, produced an array of vegetables, protected the disadvantaged against the elements, and built a reputation of pride in labor among short and long term residents. The adjacent cemetery will also be a focus of this history not to be forgotten.”

The exhibit opening is free and open to the public. The exhibit can also be seen during regular Library hours into December.

Tierney notes that student tours can be arranged and further information is available by calling 527-1278. Visit LHMS on Facebook or at <www.laconiahistory.com>. 

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“Preservation of Personal History from Scrapbooks to Facebook” is the topic of the Laconia Historical and Museum Society’s program, Monday, Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the Laconia Public Library.

Laurel Briere, of the LHMS staff, will explore “how people not only save amazing scraps, but the creative ways to save them. As trends and technology have changed, so have the ways people share and save their memories.”

Briere is an anthropologist and historian and holds a master’s degree from Plymouth State University. She will give a broad overview of the history and trends of personal preservation from commonplace notebooks to social media, including examples from scrapbooks in the LHMS archive.

The program, in Rotary Hall on the Lower Level of the library, is free and open to the public.

For further information, call 603-527-1278, or visit www.laconiahistory.com 

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Oct. 21 LACONIA —The Belknap County Farm will be the subject of a joint meeting of the Laconia Historical and Museum Society and the Thompson Ames Historical Society of Gilford, at 6:30 p.m., Monday Oct. 21, in the Lower Level Rotary Hall at the Laconia Public Library. The program will expand on the Upper Gallery County Farm Exhibit, which continues into December. Since before the Civil War, the land comprising today’s County Facility, Blueberry Lane, O’Shea Industrial Park, and adjacent neighborhoods, made up almost 500 acres of the Belknap County Farm. “The stories of what grew to be a model facility endure,” says Pat Tierney, executive director of the Laconia society. “Before most of the land was sold in 1962, local communities looked to the Farm and Alms House for agricultural excellence, care for the needy, labor for food and housing, a prison for criminals, and a cemetery for those who never left.” Tierney and other exhibit contributors will present many of the tales and timelines that emerged over the years. The program is free and open to the public. For further information call 527-1278 or go to www.laconiahistory.com.

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