July 25, 2002: It's been 20 years since a significant building was torn down on Main Street, the Monitor reports. This week, the Sears block takes its place in history alongside such historic demolitions as the Centennial Block in front of Durgin Lane, the retail building that once stood in Eagle Square and the Phenix Hotel.
July 25, 1874: Thirteen months after a fire destroyed the church on the same site, the cornerstone is laid for the North Congregational Church at North Main and Chapel streets. It will be ready for worship in March 1876.
July 25, 1927: A crowd of more than 40,000 gathers to greet Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, who lands his “Spirit of St. Louis” at Concord airport at 1:44 p.m. The band strikes up “Hail to the Chief” as the hero of transatlantic flight takes his seat on the platform. “This airport can still be improved in many ways,” Lindbergh tells the crowd. “In the future it will bring you considerable air commerce.”
July 25, 1927: A police squad of six officers enters the home of Ruth A. McKinnon on Runnels Road in Penacook. The officers arrest MacKinnon and confiscate 106 bottles of beer, empty pint and quart bottles and a capping machine. MacKinnon will be fined $100 and $41.10 in court costs and sentenced to 60 days in the house of corrections in Boscawen, but the sentence will be suspended. With her arrest, the police believe they have cut off the supply of liquor to this portion of Merrimack County.
July 26, 1814: In its continuing criticism of rising Federalist Daniel Webster, Isaac Hill's New Hampshire Patriot says that during the 13th Congress, Webster has done everything in his power “to aid the enemy” in the War of 1812.
July 26, 1945: The war in Europe over, Winston Churchill is ousted as prime minister. His dinner guest on the night of his defeat: John G. Winant of Concord, U.S. ambassador to Britain.
July 26, 1965: Trains carrying 71-foot laminated wooden arches arrive in Concord. Shipped from Oregon, they will become rafters for the new Everett Arena.
July 27, 2000: A Massachusetts company presents preliminary plans for a 300,000-square-foot retail development on 53 acres between South Main and Hall streets in Concord. The project will meet with significant opposition from residents of the South End.
July 27, 1927: The police report more evidence of the pickpockets who worked the crowd during Col. Charles A. Lindbergh's visit to Concord two days before. Two young boys have found 20 more pocketbooks in a hole covered with paper behind the airport hangar. The number of people robbed now totals at least 36.
July 28, 1927: Nellie Taylor Ross, the nation's first woman governor, stops at the Concord home of former New Hampshire governor John G. Winant. She is on her way to Tilton, where she will give a Chatauqua speech in the evening. The Monitor reports that Ross, the former governor of Wyoming, is “noted for her charming manner” and “travels in an expensive car, with her own chauffeur.” Asked whether she will reveal all in her speech, Ross says one hour won't give her enough time. “There is a difference between the truth and the whole truth,” she says. “Certainly I tell the truth.”
July 28, 2002: John Frisbee, executive director of the New Hampshire Historical Society, dies at the age of 58. Frisbee took the helm at the historical society in 1987, and it was under his leadership, colleagues said, that the now 179-year-old organization arrived in the modern age. Frisbee led a more than $6 million capital campaign that paid for renovations to the Tuck Library in Concord as well as the purchase, design and construction of the museum, which opened in 1995.
July 28, 1855: The Concord city council registers its approval of the state's new anti-drinking law. “Resolved that the late act for the suppression of intemperance in this state meets with our entire approbation. Therefore, resolved that the city marshal and his assistants are requested to prosecute, with promptness and energy, all violations and infringements of said law.”
July 29, 2001: The New York Post runs a first-person essay by Concord's Adam Young about the experience of trying to make the New York Giants' roster. “I think I have a different perspective than a lot of guys,” Young writes. “You appreciate the things that come to you after having to battle your way through the ranks.”
July 30, 1777: After riding all night from Exeter, Lt. Col. Gordon Hutchins, Concord's legislative representative, bursts into the Sunday service at Concord's meeting house to say that Gen. John Stark is marching west but needs more men.
“Those of you who are willing to go had better go at once,” Rev. Timothy Walker tells his congregation. All men present leave.
