Manchester quiz! Can you answer this question?

What is this building?

Hints: • It was dedicated in 1932. • It was designed by architects Hutchins & French. Maybe that's not a very useful hint! But Manchester has examples of the work of many famous architects.

Pictured above , 1923 centennial-year parade in front of the former Odd Fellows building at the corner of Main and Center Streets. It's also a jigsaw puzzle . Try it!

Also, pictured on right , we recently featured on our Facebook page: the 1986 Somanhis -- for which we thank Joshua Pruden and Bob Gauthier for their work and technical expertise.

Find us on Facebook !

Recently featured on Facebook, various jigsaw puzzles, including some made from photos taken by Manchester photographers Sinch Ofiara and John Knoll. In case you missed this one, or would like to try it again -- here's the jigsaw puzzle of Cheney Hall .

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This image of Downtown starts at Purnell Place on the left. Read more about Manchester's listings on the National Register, including our Downtown, by clicking the image above. Downtown is listed on the Register as the Main Street Historic District.

Watch other short videos here .

Teensy videos on our website

Watch a 33-second video of our Downtown, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Thanks to Dick Jenkins for the 2009 photo on the left, a view that includes the former Waranoke Inn, which burned in 2013.

Above, 1918 poster. Those of us who are older may remember those "common towels" referred to. They were a standard feature in old-fashioned restrooms -- a box on the wall with a roller, where you pulled the toweling toward yourself, dried your hands, and then the next person came along, and the next.

Library of Congress online resources for teachers and historians.

Our U.S. Library of Congress provides scads of primary-source documents, photos, posters, vintage recordings, entire books! And these resources are free for us to use in classrooms or at home! Check out this recent blog about the 1918 Influenza epidemic.

The blog includes a handwritten 10/10/1918 letter to her family from American Red Cross volunteer Dorothy Kitchen O'Neill, in which she describes how she and forty other women came down with influenza on the voyage to Europe; four of those women died. "I was down for a week and have only been up for two days so feel shaky." the blog goes on to say, "The Great War did not cause the epidemic of influenza that swept the world in 1918 and killed more than 30 million people. However the war likely helped to spread the disease, an especially deadly strain of flu, with its crowding of troops in training camps and trenches and the flow of people across oceans and borders."

FINAL PLEA!

Please jot down your thoughts about and experiences during the pandemic!

Be a part of history in the making. The Historical Society will have a complete book for our archives, replete with stories that you contribute. "It takes time to put current events in context, and that will certainly be the case with the pandemic we are living through, but even now, in the middle of it, we know this is a big, big deal -- for Manchester, for our state and nation, for the world. " -- Jim Farrell

Writers wanted...

Think about how life has changed, how we've been negatively affected, what benefits we may have noticed. The editor of our school's e-newsletter, One Manchester, Jim Farrell, is calling upon us to write a 300-800 word essay, and if it's published in the newsletter, it will also be printed in a hard-bound book to be donated to the Manchester Historical Society and displayed at our museum.

YOUR OPPORTUNITY to contribute.

More info: Manchester essays wanted.

Contributions go to Jim Farrell, communications director of the school district at b11jfarr@mpspride.org."

May TV show --

An informal visit to the History Center -- was filmed in 2018. You can watch the show on the Public Access website: this month's television show. We'll visit exhibits and introduce Linda Findlay, whose mother collected Manchester memorabilia. Linda describes some of the items that are part of the eclectic donations to the Historical Society. The artifacts, such as postcards, ink blotters, newspaper clippings, and high school yearbooks, spark memories and bring up stories of the past. Some items from the collections can be viewed on our website: Postcard collection, ink blotter collection. The show airs at 12:00 noon and 8:00 p.m. on Cox cable channel 15 on Saturdays, and runs on all the Saturdays of the month. The show changes each month. This Channel 15 broadcasts in Manchester, Glastonbury, South Windsor, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington.

Unfortunately, the cable studio and equipment is unavailable through the end of May, so we will not be able to make new TV shows for a while.

Photo above: The History Center, headquarters of the Historical Society.

Below: Postcards of Center Church in 1915, and the Odd Fellows buildingClick the image for a more postcards

You can watch more of our history TV shows online by selecting "Manchester Program Schedule" (the second gray tab) on the local Public Access website -- then on the next screen, type Historical into the search box.

Answers to the question at the top of this e-newsletter:

The Whiton Memorial Library was dedicated May 10, 1932 -- see the program by clicking the image on the right. The historic library building is still there, although our libraries are currently closed to the public, due to the pandemic.

Pictured on left is a photo of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Whiton, for whom the library is named. A portion of their estate was a bequest to the town of Manchester for the construction of a library in the North End.

Membership for yourself or --

Consider a gift membership for a friend or loved one. Why join a local historical society, even if you don't live in that town? Some reasons: • support education about the history of the town • support preservation of artifacts and vintage photos • join in advocating for preservation of historic buildings and parks that make Manchester charming.

Print this online donation form and mail to 175 Pine Street. Or drop by the History Center, Tuesdays through Fridays from 10:00 to 2:00. Direct questions to 860-647-9983.

Additional ways to donate: Employer matching gifts! Direct United Way donations to the Society. Sign in to Amazon via Amazon Smile and have a percentage of your purchases go to the Society. .