The Belmont Mill NH State Register Nomination was prepared for the Belmont Heritage Commission. The mill was constructed in 1834 and was central to the development of the town of Belmont. Factory Village (as Belmont was once called) was built around the Badger Mill, and the village evolved into today’s Belmont as the Badger Mill grew into the Gilmanton Mill and then into the Belmont Mill.

This mill complex was the driving force in Belmont’s economy throughout its transition from a locally-capitalized cotton mill in the 1830s to a highly mechanized hosiery factory with world-wide distribution in the 20th century. In 1970, the Belmont Mill was largely abandoned when the Fenwick Hosiery Mills (who had purchased the mill in 1956) consolidated in Laconia.

On August 14, 1992, there was a devastating five alarm fire at the Belmont Mill complex. As a result of the fire, many of the outbuildings at the mill were demolished and a Save the Mill Committee was started in an effort to preserve the 1834 main building. In January 1996, the first Plan NH Charrette was held to focus on possible future uses of the Belmont Mill and how to fund the project. Through a series of grants and a grass-roots community effort, the mill was renovated between 1996-1998.

Those efforts to save the Belmont Mill have been widely recognized in the preservation community, and the adaptive reuse project has received many awards. For more information, visit the Belmont Village Revitalization site or see the Laconia Daily Sun article announcing the State Register listing.

[Post by Mae Williams, PSU ’14G, preservation consultant on the listing]

CONCORD N. H. GASHOLDER FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE

After more than two years of apparent inaction, owner Liberty Utilities has recently announced that it will soon decide whether to repair or demolish the well-known but damaged gasholder house in Concord, N. H. The 1888 brick structure is the last gasholder house in the United States to retain its interior floating tank. The building serves as the logo of the Northern New England Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA).

Built for the Concord Gas Light Company (founded 1850) to supplant smaller gasholders with lesser capacities, the 1888 structure is 86 feet in diameter and 28 feet high to the top of its brick walls, and had a maximum storage capacity of 120,000 cubic feet. The riveted gasholder tank weighs 80,000 pounds and floated in a subterranean cistern holding 800,000 gallons of water. W. C. Whyte of New York City built the structure, and Laurel Iron Works of Philadelphia fabricated its enclosed wrought iron tank. Both companies were specialists in gasholder design and construction.

HAER team recording the structure in July 1982.

The Concord gasholder house was the site of the inaugural meeting of the Northern New England Chapter of SIA on July 26, 1980. Two years later, the chapter recorded the building for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) with a 25-member team assembled by the late William L. Taylor of Plymouth State College, now PSU. Chief of HAER Eric DeLony and Smithsonian curator Robert M. Vogel advised the crew, and a survey and planning grant from the New Hampshire State Historic Preservation Office provided financial support. Taylor published a summary history of the gas company and the gas holder in the SIA journal IA 10:1 (1984): 1-16.

The gasholder stored coal gas until 1894, followed by carbureted water gas until 1952, when the then-owners switched from manufactured gas to natural gas.

Roof framing viewed from below.

Although unused, the building remained in excellent condition until 2013, when a storm-toppled tree crushed a section of its conical wood-framed and slated roof. The impact damaged the wooden thrust ring at the base of the roof and the supporting masonry wall below. The owners left the roof unrepaired as winter approached, prompting the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance to declare the gasholder house one of the seven most endangered historic properties in the state in October 2013.

Liberty Utilities hired a contractor to place a temporary patch on the roof in September 2014, but a year later has announced that the temporary work is at the end of its effective life and that the company must soon decide whether to restore the building or to demolish it and clean up the site. Local officials regard the building as an icon of the New Hampshire state capital and are hoping to meet with Liberty Utilities representatives to seek a way to preserve the structure.

[This article was written by PSU Historic Preservation professor James Garvin and originally published in the Fall 2015 (Vol. 36, No. 2) newsletter of the Society for Industrial Archeology – New England Chapters.]

On July 31 the Concord Monitor reported that replacement of the historic Sewall’s Falls Bridge would begin on August 3, 2015.

The Sewall’s Falls Bridge is a two-span, riveted Pratt through-truss crossing the Merrimack River on Sewall’s Falls Road in Concord, NH. The bridge was designed by John William Storrs, a New Hampshire bridge designer, and constructed in 1915. It replaced a wooden covered bridge and utilizes the granite pier and abutments from that earlier bridge.

In 1988, the Sewall’s Falls Bridge was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

“Sewall’s Falls Bridge is Concord’s last surviving example of a bridge design by New Hampshire’s most eminent bridge engineer of the early twentieth century, a designer who maintained his practice in Concord and served the city in many other ways.” — James Garvin, 2005

The Sewall’s Falls Bridge was permanently closed to vehicular traffic on December 1, 2014. Pedestrians and bicyclists continued to use and enjoy the bridge through July.  The City of Concord maintains a Sewell’s Falls web site showing the progress of the Sewall’s Falls Bridge Project, which is scheduled for completion in December 2016. Mitigating the demolition of the historic bridge, part of the Section 106 review and Memorandum of Agreement with the NH Division of Historical Resources, the old bridge’s history will be presented on a plaque within Sewall’s Falls Park. A small portion of the bridge will also remain on exhibit.

[ Post and photos by Audra Klumb, ’14G ]