Nov. 13, 2001: Concord City Manager Duncan Ballantyne outlines two options for dealing with the Sears block project, the city’s biggest and most important project in limbo. The city can meet with Hodges Development Corp. or they can proceed with demolition.
Nov. 14, 2002: A federal appeals court has reinstated an investor lawsuit against Gov.-elect Craig Benson and his former computer networking firm alleging that he company tried to hide its downward spiral by inflating revenue figures and booking fictitious sales orders, the Monitor reports.
Nov. 15, 1974: Attorney General Warren Rudman says he has found no evidence that Gov. Mel Thomson delayed the “hot dots” safety program to aid his successful reelection campaign. Richard Leonard, the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate had charged during the campaign that Thomson used the program as a political advertisement. The program, which cost $12,000, includes reflective patches designed to be worn on children’s clothing to make them more visible after dark.
Nov. 16, 1861: After several devastating fires in the city in preceding months, a committee under Concord Mayor Moses Humphrey releases a study recommending that a steam fire engine replace the hand pumper stationed on Warren Street near Main. The new engine, the “Gov. Hill,” will go into service in early 1862. It will work so well that the city will soon be shopping for another.
Nov. 16, 1896: A paltry turnout of 100 people comes to the 1,100-seat White’s Opera House on Park Street in Concord for the first motion picture, which is to be shown on Edison and Dow’s Rayoscope. The Rayoscope doesn’t work, and the crowd goes home disappointed.
Nov. 16, 1908: With a friend at the wheel, Mayor Charles Corning leaves Concord at 10:35 a.m. for a drive to Cambridge, Mass. “The highways are far from perfect, but we are covering mile after mile,” Corning writes in his diary. It takes them six hours to reach Harvard Square.
Nov. 16, 2000: A federal judge in Concord upholds the right of an internet company to refuse to register profane website addresses as it sees fit. The company was sued by a woman who claimed her First Amendment rights had been violated.
Nov. 17, 1965: Opening Day at Concord’s Everett Arena draws thousands of skaters. “They came streaming across the river bridge and down the hill from the Heights – the moppets and the middle-aged and here and there an old-timer. . . .This community, long known in sports circles as the ‘Cradle of American Hockey,’ celebrated in a mood of holiday revelry,” the Monitor reports.
Nov. 17, 2001: The plan to build a senior center in Concord, one of two state capitals in the country without such a facility, receives a positive response from the planning board, the Monitor reports.
Nov. 18, 1730: The Rev. Timothy Walker is ordained at Pennycook (later Rumford, then Concord), the community’s first minister.
Nov. 18, 2003: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in favor of gay marriage, and many in the Granite State can’t help but wonder whether New Hampshire will be next to embrace reform. “I think it definitely provides inspiration that at some point we can get the Legislature to pass a marriage bill accepting gay and lesbian couples, says Susan Hassan a Concord attorney and gay rights activist.
Nov. 19, 1863: Lyman D. Stevens of Concord represents New Hampshire at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa. He is near Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg address. A prominent lawyer, Stevens will later serve as Concord’s mayor, a state senator, a school board member, a bank president and president of New Hampshire College at Durham.
Nov. 19, 1892: Concord’s Snowshoe Club, a men’s organization, has its first celebration at its new cabin at the end of today’s Via Tranquilla. Twelve members gather “in honor of Grover Cleveland and Ward 4.” E.W. Batchelder, apparently having “counted too heavily upon the strength of one Benjamin Harrison” in that month’s presidential election, pays for dinner.
Nov. 19, 2001: The Concord City Council makes a three-year, $150,000 commitment to the downtown, and on terms that downtown merchants want. The merchants hope to join the Main Street Program, an initiative to help preserve and sustain downtowns across the country.
