September 3, 2024

1 Grace Metalious Centennial & Lecture

2 2025 Historic Preservation Award Nominations

3 Black Heritage Trail of NH Marker Unveiling

4 Murder and Mayhem: A Manchester Game of Clue

5 Millyard Museum Presents Two New Children's Books

6 Now on Exhibit: Who Wore It? The Forensics of a Dress

7 Special Exhibit: Legacy of the Manchester Housing Authority

8 Manchester Trivia Questions

Grace Metalious Centennial & Lecture: Before Peyton Place by Robert B. Perreault

Saturday, September 7, 2024

11:030 a.m.

Millyard Museum

Join us this Saturday at the Millyard Museum as we commemorate the 100th birthday of Grace Metalious, the author of the best-selling and controversial novel Peyton Place. 

Grace Metalious was born Marie Grace DeRepentigny on September 8, 1924 in Manchester. To commemorate her birth one hundred years ago, historian and Metalious scholar Robert B. Perreault will give a talk entitled “Before Peyton Place: In Search of the Real Grace Metalious” about her life and formative years in Manchester.

Today, both Peyton Place and Grace Metalious remain largely unknown among generations born after her death in 1964 at the age of 39. Metalious also wrote other novels, including No Adam in Eden. Her most autobiographical work of fiction, the novel is set in fictional “Livingstone, New Hampshire,” but based on Manchester.

Perreault’s talk looks at the author’s life and impact she has had, using No Adam in Eden and Metalious’ autobiographical article “About Me and Peyton Place,” in conjunction with his own interviews with members of Metalious’ family.

COST: included with regular admission

Pre-registration is requested. Call or e-mail today to reserve your spot! (603) 622-7531 / history@manchesterhistoric.org

2025 Historic Preservation Award Nominations



The Historic Preservation Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Historic Preservation Awards.  

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

Over 30 years, more than 250 recipients have been recognized for a wide variety of preservation efforts in 40 different categories. The annual event is the MHA's largest fundraiser to support its non-profit mission of collecting, preserving and sharing the history of Manchester.

If you are interested in nominating a person, organization or business for a Historic Preservation Award, please complete the HPA 2025 Nomination Form by December 7.

The 33rd Annual Historic Preservation Awards will be held on May 20, 2025 at the Matarese Commons at the Derryfield School. Further details will be announced in the coming months.

Black Heritage Trail of NH Marker Unveiling

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire and the Manchester Historic Association are excited to announce the dedication of a new marker recognizing and honoring enslaved peoples’ contributions to Manchester’s textile industry. 

The unveiling ceremony will take place on Saturday, September 21, at 10 a.m. The marker will be located on the south end of the Mill #3 building at 200 Bedford Street, home of the Millyard Museum. The location of the marker and ceremony is the site of a three-story picker house where bales of raw cotton were delivered and mill workers separated the cotton fibers from stems and sticks. This was one of the first places the cotton was handled once it arrived from the south. 

Prior to the Civil War, the majority of the cotton used to manufacture cloth at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester was purchased from southern sources where it was grown and picked on cotton plantations by enslaved people. In 1859, Amoskeag purchased an average of 5,000 bales of cotton per week for its textile production. The cotton was received from cities including Mobile, Alabama; Galveston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Apalachicola, Florida. 

Murder and Mayhem:

A Manchester Game of Clue

Thursday, October 3, 2024

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Millyard Museum

Join us at the Millyard Museum on October 3rd a for a fun evening of intrigue, murder, and mayhem: A Manchester Game of Clue, featuring 3 distinct historic Manchester murders.

Partnering once again with the Majestic Theater, come experience a first person

reenactment of the events as they unfolded right here in our fair Queen City. Can you solve the case of the Chauffeur in the Kitchen with the poison? How about the Barkeep in the Woods with the Knife?

The evening will include a cash bar and heavy hors d’ oeuvres. Advanced registration is required. This is a 21+ event.

COST: $15 Manchester Historic Association members – $20 General Public

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

Millyard Museum Presents Two Children's Books

The MHA is proud to present two new children’s books about the Millyard. Friends young and old will follow the adventures of Dewy, the water droplet about to embark on an Industrial Revolution water power journey and Bolly, a cotton boll, on his way to the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company to become world famous cotton fabric.

Both original books can be found exclusively at the Millyard Museum gift shop!

Now on Exhibit:

"Who Wore It? The Forensics of a Dress"

This special exhibit features 200 years of dresses worn by amazing women from Manchester’s past. These matriarchs of Manchester lived incredible lives as entrepreneurs, philanthropists, doctors, teachers, activists, New Hampshire First Ladies, and homemakers.

Generously donated by loved ones and lovingly preserved by the Manchester Historic Association, these dresses tell the stories of the vibrant women who wore them. Bearing witness to the happiest and saddest moments in the lives of their owners, these dresses witnessed both unspeakable joy and unbearable pain and every emotion in-between.

As you travel though the history of fashion and evolution of design and fabrication, we ask that you imagine the memories these gowns might hold. Motherhood, careers, and the simple tasks of everyday life become immortal through every worn hem and altered seam.

On exhibit through November 1, 2024 

Special Exhibit:

Legacy of the Manchester Housing & Redevelopment Authority

The Manchester Historic Association is pleased to partner with the Manchester Housing & Redevelopment Authority on a special, temporary exhibit that recognizes

80 years of service and work that has shaped the City of Manchester.

Over the past eight decades, the work of the MHRA has touched nearly every neighborhood in the city, clearing unsanitary blight, building affordable housing, supporting veteran families with post-war housing, and facilitating funding for industrial and community projects. This exhibit features dozens of photographs from the archives of both the MHA and MRHA that tell the story of the Housing Authority's work and lasting impact on Manchester.

On exhibit in the Millyard Museum Discovery Gallery

Last Month's Trivia Question:

What Manchester company’s product was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee for use at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City?

ANSWER: J.F. McElwain's Thom McAn shoes

This image is from the cover of the September 1968 issue of the McElwain Melvillier, published for the employees of the J.F. McElwain Company, a division of the Melville Shoe Corporation. They had factories in Manchester, N.H., Nashua, N.H., and Athol, Mass.

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This Month's Trivia Question: What Manchester Hospital, designed for the medical, obstetrical, and surgical care of the sick, was located on the corner of Belmont and East High Streets in the 1910s and 1920s?

The answer will appear in the next newsletter.