May 15, 2024

1 Historic Preservation Awards

2 Silent Auction

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

4 Book Talk & Signing: "War Fronts Home Fires" by Joseph McQuaid

5 Special Exhibit: Legacy of the Manchester Housing Authority

6 2023 Annual Report

7 Manchester Trivia Questions

2024 Historic Preservation Awards

The 32nd Annual Historic Preservation Awards are less than one week away!

Join us on May 21 at the Dana Center for the Performing Arts at Saint Anselm College.

A limited number of tickets are still available! Click here to purchase tickets.

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 2024 Historic Preservation Award honorees:

Neighborhood Preservation Award

NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire for the RENEW II Project at the Smith & Dow Block (1426 Elm St) and Carpenter & Bean Block (1382 Elm St)

Homeowner’s Award

Craig St. Pierre for the Clarence M. Dodge House, 278 Myrtle Street

Nostalgia Award

Brady Sullivan Properties for the replica of the “Lollipops” sculpture

Restoration of a City Landmark Award

Saint Joseph Cathedral, 145 Lowell Street

Private Development Award

Richard Dryer, Dryer Management Inc. for 901 Union Street

Design Award

Manchester Fire Department Station 9 (575 Calef Road) for incorporating historical elements related to Manchester firefighting

Silent Auction at Preservation Awards

This year's event will also feature a silent auction. Don't miss your opportunity to bid on over 20 great items and packages, including a stay in Portsmouth, Gold Pendant, Reed & Barton crystal vases, and a four-night stay in Havana Cuba!

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 

Book Talk & Signing:

War Fronts Home Fires by Joseph W. McQuaid

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

5:30 p.m.

Millyard Museum, FREE Admission

War Fronts Home Fires by Joseph W. McQuaid, Editor at Large for the Union Leader, chronicles the lives of McQuaid’s parents during a pivotal time in history. As a World War II newspaper correspondent for the Chicago Daily News foreign service, B.J. McQuaid covered American and British front lines from the frozen Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the steaming jungles and seas of the South Pacific, at Tarawa and Guadalcanal, and then to Europe from D-Day forward in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. His stories were published in more than 70 newspapers.

Back in New Hampshire, Peg McQuaid watched for her husband’s news stories to track his whereabouts, and supported herself and their two small children while dealing with rationing, cold winters, and loneliness. 

The couple were together just once in three years of war. 

The book showcases his remarkable reporting and their touching love story.

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

2023 Annual Report

2023 Annual Report

The Manchester Historic Association's 2023 Annual Report is now available! Please click on the above link to view or download the report.  

Print copies of the report are also available at the front desks of the Millyard Museum and Research Center and can be mailed upon request.

We hope you enjoy reading about some of the highlights from the past year!

Last Month's Trivia Question:

What annual event/exhibition was held for decades at Manchester City Hall until it was banned by the Committee on Land and Buildings in 1905?

ANSWER:

The “Manchester Poultry Show”, a noisy event that in 1874 featured over 500 hens. In their decision to end the custom, the Committee on Land and Buildings argued that City Hall was “not designed as an annex for the farm.”

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This Month's Trivia Question: What building had the distinction of having the first indoor swimming pool in Manchester?

The answer will appear in the next newsletter.