January 12, 2026

1 Recipients Announced for 2025 Historic Preservation Awards

2 MHA Partners with Revo Casino

3 America 250 Limited Edition Flag

4 Manchester's Most Wanted

5 The Lost Films of Amoskeag

6 Home School Programs at the Millyard Museum

7 Now on Exhibit: Amoskeag Revisited

8 Special Exhibit: Mentioning the Unmentionables

9 America's Tapestry Project

10 Manchester Trivia Questions

Recipients Announced for the 2026 Historic Preservation Awards

The Manchester Historic Association is pleased to announce that it has selected five honorees for the 2026 Historic Preservation Awards, to be held on May 21 at Manchester Community College.

The Historic Preservation Awards program recognizes and supports the efforts of individuals, businesses and organizations that have made significant contributions to the preservation of buildings, neighborhoods, traditions, and other historic resources in the Queen City. 

Congratulations to the 2026 Historic Preservation Award honorees:

Mid-Century Design Award

Doctors Park at Elliot Hospital, 190 Tarrytown Road

City Landmark Award

Central High School Classical Building

Adaptive Reuse Award

Queen City Center, 215 Canal Street

Stewardship Award

Manning House at Brookside Congregational Church

Individual Achievement Award

Phyllis Gagnon 

In addition to these five honorees, there will also be a “People’s Choice Award.” Beginning in February, the public will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite historic place in Manchester, and the winner will be announced at the event.

Sponsorship opportunities are available! Click here to learn more or click here to purchase a sponsorship.

MHA Partners with Revo Casino

Join us anytime this week at Revo Casino on South Willow Street! Play your favorite games and enjoy great food- all for a good cause! A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Manchester Historic Association and Millyard Museum.

America 250 Limited Edition Flag

In partnership with Flag-Works Over America, we are excited to offer a limited-edition Betsy Ross flag. This standard size, 3' x 5' flag is a great way to celebrate America's 250th Anniversary this year!

This flag is available for pre-order from now until January 31st. Orders will be available for pick-up in early February.

Click here to purchase yours today!

Manchester's Most Wanted

Thursday, February 19, 2026

5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Millyard Museum

$25 Members

$30 Non-members

Come and Meet ‘Manchester’s Most Wanted’ on February 19!

Get ready to meet some nefarious Victorian villains when the Manchester Historic Association and the Majestic Theatre team up for an interactive night of high crimes, misdemeanors and mischief at the Millyard Museum.

Meet Manchester’s Ten Most Wanted, as depicted on a poster from the U.S. Post Office in the Queen City, circa 1896, and enjoy cocktails, fun and the odd felony.

Among the characters in this rogue’s gallery? Consider Michael Sherlock, a.k.a. “The Gentleman Burglar of Stockbridge,” the British bigamist known as James Canham Read and the “Knock-Out Mollies,” Nellie Brown and Georgie Adams, whose M.O. included knock-out drugs in the beers of their victims, clearing the way for them to empty their hotel rooms of all of their valuables.

The event will run from 5-7 p.m. Admission is $25 for MHA members, $30 for not-yet members.

Pre-registration is required. Click here to register, or call or e-mail today to reserve your spot! (603) 622-7531 / history@manchesterhistoric.org

The Lost Films of Amoskeag

Saturday, February 28, 2026

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Millyard Museum

FREE with Regular Admission

In the fall of 1968, redevelopment was dramatically reshaping Manchester’s Millyard. The Manchester Historic Association considered producing a film to document the before and after. Two brothers submitted black and white film in hopes of being chosen for the project, which was abandoned due to a lack of funding in the 1970s. The film sat forgotten on a shelf until last summer.

In June 1978, WGBH-TV in Boston produced a half-hour program called “The Amoskeag Transcripts” based on the work of Tamara Hareven and Randolph Langenbach. It explained what happened after the mills closed and the impact on Manchester’s population.

 On February 28th we’ll show both of “The Lost Films of Amoskeag.”

WHERE: Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford Street, Manchester

COST: Included with Regular Admission

Now on Exhibit:

Amoskeag Revisited: A Fifty Year Retrospective

The year 1975 was a turning point for Manchester’s Millyard. The urban renewal project had recently been completed with the filling in of the canals and demolition of about 25% of the mill space, and many of the businesses that came into the Millyard in the 1930s and 1940s had left, including the Chicopee Manufacturing Company, which shut down that year.

In September 1975, a special exhibit opened at the Currier Gallery of Art called “Amoskeag, A Sense of Place, A Way of Life”. The exhibit was designed by Randolph Langenbach, an architectural historian, and featured historic images of the mills, along with contemporary photographs taken by Langenbach before and during the urban renewal project. Also featured in the exhibit were machinery and architectural components of the mill buildings that had been salvaged by Langenbach, as well as recollections of former millworkers who told what it was like to work in the mills and live in corporation housing.

The exhibit was very successful, attracting double the number of visitors to the Currier than any previous exhibit. It also served to instill in the city and its citizens a deeper appreciation for the mills and the legacy of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, as well as for the remaining mill buildings.

In the fifty years since the Amoskeag exhibit opened at the Currier, Manchester has grown to have a deeper appreciation of the history of the Amoskeag mills. This exhibit at the Millyard Museum examines the lasting impact that the mills have had on Manchester and feature elements of the original 1975 exhibit as well as never-before-seen photographs taken by Langenbach.

Included with Regular Admission. On exhibit through March 7, 2026

Special Exhibit: 


"Mentioning the Unmentionables"

Now on Display in the Millyard Museum's Discovery Gallery: "Mentioning the Unmentionables: A Brief History of… Briefs and other Underthings"

Come and see this unique exhibit, displaying a variety of undergarments worn by women throughout Manchester's history, spanning two centuries. See how styles changed in this rare look at everyday, familiar pieces of clothing. As we mention the unmentionables, we hope you enjoy a peak into a personal history. 

Included with Regular Admission

America's Tapestry Project

Fridays and Saturdays through April

Millyard Museum

included with regular admission

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Manchester Historic Association is excited to announce a partnership with America's Tapestry.

America's Tapestry is a unique exhibition that will feature 13 hand-embroidered panels, one for each of the original colonies. The embroidery is being conducted by talented artisans from New Hampshire to Georgia and each panel illustrates the diverse stories of individual contributions–many overlooked–that reveal each colony's struggle for Independence.

Museums from across the states have volunteered to collaborate on the panels' historical imagery and host the stitchers as they work.

The Millyard Museum is pleased to be hosting the stitchers of the New Hampshire panel as they create this artwork that celebrates the state's pioneering revolutionary spirit. Visitors to the Millyard Museum are invited to come and watch the stitchers as they work every Friday and Saturday (excluding major holidays) in the museum's Elm Street gallery until the work is completed, likely in early 2026.

Following the completion of all 13 panels, "America's Tapestry" will tour a number of venues throughout the East Coast, including the Millyard Museum in 2027.

To learn more about America's Tapestry, visit their website: americastapestry.com

To learn more about the design of the New Hampshire panel, click here.

Last Month's Trivia Question:

The word “Amoskeag” comes from the language of the Pennacook people and is best translated as “place of many fish.” What word from the Pennacook is another local place name meaning, “place of many deer”?

ANSWER:

Piscataquog

The Piscataquog River is a tributary of the Merrimack River, flowing from Deering, NH to Manchester where it meets the Merrimack.  The name means “place of many deer” and its deep woodlands was a favored hunting ground of the Penacook Indians.  

In the 1760s, the area near where the Piscataquog flows into the Merrimack began to be settled and became known as Piscataquog Village. Businesses supporting the textile industry in Manchester were established, such as bobbin and shuttle factories. Originally a part of Bedford, residents petitioned the state legislature to join Manchester, and they were annexed in 1853, becoming part of Manchester’s West Side.  

The Piscataquog section of Manchester, or ‘Squog as it came to be known, became home to many German immigrants, particularly in the neighborhood centered on Second Street and Granite Square. By the 1880s there was a vibrant German-American community in the area.  

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This Month's Trivia Question: What is New Hampshire’s oldest radio station, which began broadcasting from the Carpenter Hotel in Manchester in 1932?

The answer will appear in the next newsletter.