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.
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. 21, 2002: Seventy-five nonunion state employees gather at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord to voice frustration after discovering they must pay the state employees union for the cost of contract negotiations, and if the employees don’t hand over that monthly tithe, they could get fired.
Nov. 21, 2001: The Brick Tower, the last independently owned motel in Concord, will close at the end of the month. The 47-room motel, which opened in 1958, could not compete with the newer hotels in the area.
Nov. 21, 1987: On a gusty day during which the temperature never hits 20 degrees, Concord High School defeats Salem 14-7 to win its first state football championship since 1974.
Nov. 22, 2003: The 52nd annual Holiday Magic Christmas Parade in Concord goes to the dogs, the dogs on the Rolling Bones 4-H club parade float, that is. Joining the canines on the two mile route up Loudon Road are high school marching bands, children on unicycles, Shriners in tiny Jeeps, horses, Hooters girls and fire engines.
Nov. 22, 1963: New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s schedule for a three-day campaign visit to New Hampshire is on the front page of the Monitor, but the trip will be canceled because of the lead story of the day: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Nov. 23, 1911: The New Hampshire Historical Society dedicates its building in Concord. The building was designed by Guy Lowell, also architect of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and financed by philanthropist Edward Tuck. The society was previously housed on North Main Street in what are now the law offices of Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell.
Nov. 24, 1989: The temperature in Concord falls to 5 below zero, making this the coldest November day of the 20th century.
Nov. 24, 1812: The first inmate, John Drew of Meredith, is brought to Concord’s first state prison. The prison was built near Washington Street after legislative approval in 1810. During a visit to the city, the Rev. Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, called it “a noble edifice in beautiful granite.” How Drew found it is not recorded. He was sentenced to four years for stealing a horse.
Nov. 25, 2001: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, a consulting company hired by Concord City Councilors to study traffic patterns on Loudon Road, concludes that instead of more lanes for traffic there should be fewer and that some traffic should be perted to alternate routes, the Monitor reports.
Nov. 25, 1875: Although the building is not quite completed, the fire department occupies its new central station on Warren Street between Green and State streets.
