Rochester, New Hampshire - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

6/16/13 Rochester, New Hampshire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_New_Hampshire 1/8

City of Rochester

City

Buildings in downtown Rochester

Seal

Nickname(s): The Lilac City

Location within Strafford County, New Hampshire

Coordinates: 43187N 705823W

Country United States

State New Hampshire

County Strafford

Settled 1749

Incorporated 1778

Government

Mayor T. J. Jean

City Council Brian B. LaBrancheA. Raymond Varney, Jr.Elaine M. LauterbornSandra B. Keans

Rochester, New HampshireFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rochester is a city in Strafford County, NewHampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, the

city population was 29,752.[1] The city includes thevillages of East Rochester and Gonic. Rochester ishome to Skyhaven Airport and the annual RochesterFair.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Origins

1.2 Rochester Common1.3 Early education

1.4 Growth through the 19th century1.5 Library1.6 City Hall and Opera House

1.7 20th century

1.8 Natural disasters

2 Geography

3 Demographics

4 Notable people5 Sites of interest

6 References

7 External links

History

Origins

Rochester was once inhabited by Abenaki Indians ofthe Pennacook tribe. They fished, hunted and farmed,moving locations when their agriculture exhausted thesoil for growing pumpkins, squash, beans and maize.Gonic was called Squanamagonic, meaning "the waterof the clay place hill."

The town was one of four granted by ColonialGovernor Samuel Shute of Massachusetts during hisbrief term. Incorporated in 1722, it was named for hisclose friend, Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester andbrother-in-law to King James II. As was customary,tall white pine trees were reserved for use as masts bythe Royal Navy. But hostility with the Indians delayed

Coordinates: 43187N 705823W



Peter A. LachapelleJohn LarochelleDavid WalkerRay LundbornRalph TorrAlan Reed-EricksonStephen HerveyJulien Savoie

City Manager Daniel Fitzpatrick

Area

Total 45.8 sq mi (118.5 km2)

Land 45.4 sq mi (117.6 km2)

Water 0.3 sq mi (0.9 km2)

Elevation 225 ft (69 m)

Population (2010)

Total 29,752

Density 650/sq mi (250/km2)

Time zone EST (UTC-5)

Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)

ZIP codes 03800-03899

Area code(s) 603

FIPS code 33-65140

GNIS feature ID 0869554

Website www.rochesternh.net(http://www.rochesternh.net)

settlement until 1728, although attacks would continueuntil 1748. Early dwellings clustered together forprotection, beginning near Haven Hill. Due to warfareor disease, after 1749 the Indians were gone. Thecommunity at that time included Farmington, whichwould be incorporated in 1798, and Milton, in 1802.

Rochester Common

In 1737, the Reverend Amos Main became the firstsettled pastor of the Congregational Church, locatedon Rochester Hill. The building would be moved toRochester Common, which then encompassed 250

acres (1.0 km2) and was called Norway Plain MilleCommon after its abundant Norway pines. At thetime, the Common extended into what is nowdowntown Rochester. By 1738, the farmingcommunity contained 60 families. A statue of ParsonMain, sculpted by Giuseppe Moretti, today presidesover the town square.

By 1780 the area surrounding the Common was themost thickly settled part of town, so a meetinghouse/church was erected on the east end of theCommon with the entrance facing what is now SouthMain Street. A cemetery was also established near thenew meeting house, but the ground was found to betoo wet, and the bodies were removed to the OldRochester Cemetery. In 1842 the Meeting House/church was moved to the present-day location at the cornerof Liberty and South Main streets. As the years went by the size of the Common would shrink as more of it wassold off for development.

During the Revolutionary War the Common was used as the meeting place for soldiers before going off to war.The common is also the location of the city's Civil War monument which bears the names of the 54 men whodied then. The monument was dedicated in the 1870s, and in the 1880s the statue was added to the monument.Four Civil War cannons also decorated the monument, but during World War II the cannon were melted downfor use in the war. They were replaced by World War II guns.

The bandstand was built in 1914 by Miles Dustin; before then band concerts were held on the square. The flagpole was donated by J. Frank Place in 1917. He was the former publisher of the Rochester Courier.

Early education

In the early days if a town had more than 50 families, it was required to establish a public school to teach writingand reading. Up to 1750 Rochester was able to ignore this law because of Indian hostilities. In 1750 the Indianattacks were not a threat anymore so Rochester voted at a town meeting to start schooling the children.

In 1751 the first public schooling started in Rochester. The school lasted for 16 weeks and the first teacher(school master) was named John Forst. Forst was paid a salary of 15 pounds and boarded with a differentfamily each month (this family received 30 cents a week from the city). The early school had a fireplace in thefront of the classroom. The children in the front of the class got really hot while the children at the back of the



The Cocheco River provided power

for the city's early factories and mills.

classroom were really cold. Discipline of the school children was enforced by the teacher flogging the students.One of the earlier teachers was named Mr. Tanner, and he was known as the best 'flogger' in the area eventhough he had only one arm.

Growth through the 19th century

When Rochester was first settled there was no mail service at all. In 1768 this changed when a post ridertraveled from Portsmouth through Berwick, Dover and Rochester bringing gazettes. In 1792 this improvedwhen Joseph Paine would deliver and pick up mail once a week. When he arrived in town a horn would blow toinform the town of his presence. A regular post office was established on March 26, 1812, in the Barke Tavern.The first postmaster in Rochester was William Barker.

The first large business was lumbering, although it would be overtakenby other industries as Rochester developed into a mill town with theCochecho River to provide water power. In 1806, 6 tanneries wereoperating, along with a sawmill, fulling mill, and 2 gristmills. By the1820s-1830s, the town had a cabinet maker and clockmaker. TheMechanics Company was established in 1834, producing woolenblankets which would win the premium quality award at the 1853New York World's Fair. The Norway Plains Woolen Companymanufactured blankets used by the Union Army in the Civil War, andin 1870 wove 1,600,000 yards (1,500,000 m) of textiles, but bycentury's end was out of business.

In 1854, the E.G. & E. Wallace Shoe Company was established,eventually becoming the city's biggest employer, with over 700

workers in 1901. Its name changed to the Rochester Shoe Corporation in the 1920s. The Kessel Fire BrickCompany was established in 1889, and at one time bricks for new buildings at Harvard University were made inGonic. Carrying the freight were four railroads which once passed through Rochester, a major junction betweenHaverhill, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine. Agriculture continued to be important, and in 1875 theRochester Fair was established. In 1891, Rochester was incorporated as a city.

The first telephone was installed in 1885 in the K.C. Sanborn Drug Store, the phone was connected to theDover Telephone Exchange. By the early 1900s there were 1200 local calls and 400 toll calls a day made fromRochester.

During the Great Depression, however, several industries left for cheaper operating conditions in the South orwent bankrupt. But the affluent mill era left behind some fine architecture, including the Rochester Public Library,designed by the Concord architects Randlett & Griffin.

Library

The Rochester Public Library was started in 1893 and was one of the three earliest public libraries in the state.Back then the library was located on the corner of Portland and Main streets. A little bit later it moved to CityHall.

In the early 1900s, Rochester Postmaster Osman Warren contacted Andrew Carnegie to secure his help inproviding financial help in building a new library. The Carnegie Institute responded with a check for $20,000.The brand new library was built on the site of what was the Main Street School. The library was built in the newGeorgian revival style using brick and granite, and the inside was finished with golden oak and cypress. Thelibrary opened on October 2, 1905, and 150 people registered the first day. Miss Lillian Parshley was the firstlibrarian, serving until her death in 1945. Velma Foss, Miss Parshley's assistant, was the second librarian of the



The Rochester Public Library in New

Hampshire

Rochester Library.

City Hall and Opera House

Another notable structure is the 1908 Rochester City Hall and Opera House by George Gilman Adams. Adamsdesigned other city hall/opera house dual-purpose buildings around New England, including for Bellows Falls,Vermont (1887); Amesbury, Massachusetts (1887); Dover, New Hampshire (1891); and Derry, NewHampshire (1901). Only four of his city hall/opera houses survive today (in Waterville, Montpelier, Derry, andRochester), as many of his buildings were destroyed by fire.

George Adams' opera houses were unique because of their floors,which were movable and could function in an inclined position or levelposition. With the floor in the inclined position, the opera house wouldshow plays, concerts, etc. When the floor was level, the buildingcould be used for dances or public meetings. The Rochester OperaHouse opened on Memorial Day in 1908. Almost all of Adams'buildings contained the movable floor, though the buildings inWaterville and Montpelier did not. Because of the destruction of theother opera houses the Rochester Opera House is the only knowntheatre in the United States to use this type of movable floor.

Today one can still take in a show at the Rochester Opera House.The Opera House looks like it did over ninety years ago when itopened up.

20th century

Rochester passed out of the silent movie era on May 20, 1929 withthe arrival of the first talking motion picture in the city, titled The WildParty, starring Clara Bow. The movie was shown at the ScenicTheater. The evening admission price was 35 cents for adults and 15cents for children.

A Rochester Courier article from October 1930 described a newindoor golf course:

INDOOR GOLF COURSE TO BE OPENED ON SATURDAYThe Leavitt Theatre Property Transformed Inside Into a Bower of Beauty - Rochester is tohave an indoor golf course, which, it is said, will be second to none, in beauty and attractiveness,this side of New York. Fred Couture, proprietor of the Scenic theatre, who a few months sincepurchased the Leavitt theatre on South Main Street, has been laying out a small fortune in fitting itup on the ground floor for such use. This building was formerly the residence of the Hon. SummerWallace and was one of the most beautiful mansions in New Hampshire. Despite the way in whichthe outside was altered to make the theatre, much of the magnificent paneling inside has beenpreserved. It was a foundation for an unusual setting for indoor golf. A large force of workers hasbeen engaged in recent weeks, working in relays, and this week six scene painters are decoratingthe walls and ceilings. There are to be an Egyptian room, a Japanese room, an Indian room and aDutch room. The walls of each are adorned with appropriate paintings to form a picture of anyparticular land represented. The Dutch room, for example, not only has the paintings of the canalsand dikes but an actual windmill revolving. In the Indian room are pictures of forests and streams,with an Indian paddling a canoe. There is a real waterfall too, with the water flowing down over



actual rocks into a series of three basins, with a pool for goldfish at the bottom. One roomrepresents the seashore, the entire wall being one huge painting of the ocean, with a real light houseperched up on a promontory, with a light shedding forth its rays. There is also a garden room witha profusion of flowers. There are various rest rooms and seats in plenty everywhere for theonlookers or tired players. All the floors will be covered with artificial grass. In a conspicuousplace is a great pile of stones, with a fountain at the top, out of which a tiny stream trickles downover the rocks in various small channels and little pools. Ferns grow on its sides. There are also invarious places tree trunks, some birch with their white bark and other varieties. There will beeighteen holes to the golf course, with various traps and some mysteries. The whole place iscertainly a wonderful representation of the great out-of-doors and a veritable dream of loveliness.The grand opening is set for Saturday evening at 6:00, when Mayor Louis H. McDuffee will press

the button and turn on the lights.[2]

Natural disasters

The summer of 1947 was dry. In late October of that year only 1/8 inch of rain had fallen since mid-September,and the temperatures were high. Small ponds and streams were dried up, and local farmers were using waterfrom the Salmon Falls River and Cocheco River to provide water for their livestock. Fire risk was high. OnOctober 21, sparks from a passing train car in Farmington ignited the dry grass on both sides of the track,starting the biggest fire to strike Rochester.

At first firefighters seemed to have the fire in control, but two days later winds up to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h)drove the 'small' fire out of control. The wind-driven fire moved to the south and east into Rochester. The firewould engulf an area over 9 miles (14 km) long and over 2 miles (3.2 km) wide with walls of flame 40 feet(12 m) high. Before the fire was under control over 30 homes in Rochester would be lost.

Hurricane Carol struck New Hampshire on September 2, 1954. The winds of the hurricane were in excess of90 miles per hour (140 km/h). The property damage in New Hampshire was estimated to be 3 million dollarsand four inches of rain fell during the storm.

Upper Dam c. 1905

Public Library c. 1908

City Hall c. 1910

Central Square in 1909



The Cocheco River flows through

central Rochester.

Historical populationsCensus Pop. %

1790 2,857

1800 2,646 7.4%

1810 2,118 20.0%

1820 2,471 16.7%

1830 2,155 12.8%

1840 2,431 12.8%

1850 3,006 23.7%

1860 3,384 12.6%

City Hotel c. 1910

Wallace Factory c. 1910

Stone Bridge c. 1910

Rochester Fair c. 1910

Geography

Rochester is located at (43.302081,

-70.973106).[3]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total

area of 45.8 square miles (118.6 km2), of which 45.4 square miles

(117.6 km2) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km2) is water,

comprising 0.79% of the town.[4] Rochester is drained by the SalmonFalls, Isinglass and Cochecho rivers. The highest point in Rochester isa southern extension of Nute Ridge, at 581 feet (177 m) above sealevel, occupying the northern corner of the city.

New Hampshire Route 16 (the Spaulding Turnpike) is a controlled-access highway that passes through the city, leading north towards Conway and south to Dover andPortsmouth. U.S. Route 202 uses the turnpike to bypass the city center, then heads northeast into Maine andsouthwest towards Concord. New Hampshire Route 125 passes north-south through the center of town,leading south to Lee and Epping, and traveling north parallel to NH 16 into Milton. New Hampshire Route 11leads west to Alton and Laconia and northeast along US 202 into Maine. New Hampshire Route 108 leadssoutheast to Dover, and New Hampshire Route 202A leads southwest to Strafford and Northwood.

Besides the main downtown part of Rochester, there are two other named communities of significance within thecity limits. East Rochester is located near the northeast border of the city along routes 202 and 11, next to theSalmon Falls River, while Gonic is located south of downtown along NH 125 at a dam on the Cocheco River.

Demographics

As of the census[5] of 2000, there were 28,461 people, 11,434 households,and 7,649 families residing in the city. The population density was 630.3 peopleper square mile (243.4/km). There were 11,836 housing units at an averagedensity of 262.1 per square mile (101.2/km). The racial makeup of the citywas 97.12% White, 0.52% African American, 0.22% Native American,0.87% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.26% from other races, and 0.98%from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.90% of thepopulation.

43187N 705823W



1860 3,384 12.6%

1870 4,103 21.2%

1880 5,784 41.0%

1890 7,396 27.9%

1900 8,466 14.5%

1910 8,868 4.7%

1920 9,673 9.1%

1930 10,209 5.5%

1940 12,012 17.7%

1950 13,776 14.7%

1960 15,927 15.6%

1970 17,938 12.6%

1980 21,560 20.2%

1990 26,630 23.5%

2000 28,461 6.9%

2010 29,752 4.5%

There were 11,434 households out of which 32.8% had children under the ageof 18 living with them, 50.9% were married couples living together, 11.4% hada female householder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families.25.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.6% had someoneliving alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was2.46 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.3% under the age of 18,7.7% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 13.5%who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every100 females there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over,there were 90.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $40,596, and the medianincome for a family was $47,324. Males had a median income of $34,290versus $23,319 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,859.About 6.3% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the povertyline, including 11.7% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

Isaac Adams, inventor and manufacturer

Allard Baird, assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox

Jeff Coffin, saxophonist with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones[citation needed]

James Farrington, US congressmanSamuel D. Felker, mayor and 54th Governor of New Hampshire

John P. Hale, US senator

Charles Francis Hall, Arctic explorer

Christy Karacas, creator of cartoon series Superjail![citation needed]

Lyndon LaRouche, political activist and presidential candidate

Daniel Lothrop, publisher; born in Rochester

Freddy Meyer, defenseman with the Philadelphia Flyers[citation needed]

Brandon Rogers, defenseman with the Anaheim Ducks and Houston Aeros

Carol Shea-Porter, US congresswoman

Huntley N. Spaulding, 61st governor of New Hampshire

Rolland H. Spaulding, 55th governor of New Hampshire

Nathaniel Upham, US congressman

Sites of interest

Rochester Historical Society Museum

Rochester Opera House

Rochester Common

Spaulding High SchoolRochester Skate Park

Roger Allen Sports Facility

Rochester Museum of Fine Arts



References

1. ^ United States Census Bureau, American FactFinder (http://factfinder2.census.gov/main.html), 2010 Censusfigures. Retrieved March 23, 2011.

2. ^ "INDOOR GOLF COURSE TO BE OPENED SATURDAY"(http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/niagara/news/nh/rochester10031930.html). Rochester Courier(Rochester, New Hampshire). October 3, 1930. Retrieved 11 June 2010.

3. ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990" (http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html). UnitedStates Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.

4. ^ "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001) - Rochester city, New Hampshire"(http://factfinder2.census.gov). U.S. Census Bureau American Factfinder. Retrieved November 15, 2011.

5. ^ "American FactFinder" (http://factfinder.census.gov). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.

External links

City of Rochester official website (http://www.rochesternh.net)

Rochester Fair (http://www.rochesterfair.com/)

Rochester Public Library (http://www.rpl.lib.nh.us/)

New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile(http://www.nhes.nh.gov/elmi/products/cp/profiles-htm/rochester.htm)

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Populated places established in 1749 Early American industrial centers Rochester, New Hampshire

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Rochester, New Hampshire - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia