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Plymouth NH

The Six Oldest Courthouses in New England

Some of the oldest courthouses in New England have had revolutionaries argue cases in them. Patriots, heroes and traitors walked within their walls.

One of the oldest courthouses served as the seat of state government. One was built to replace a building burned by the British. One was once a tavern.

As places where disputes are argued and settled, courthouses have always been central to the civic life of the region.

Here are the six of the oldest courthouses in New England, one in each state. If you know of a historic old courthouse, please share it with us in the comments section.

New London County Courthouse

The New London County Courthouse was built from 1784-86 to replace the courthouse burned by the British during the American Revolution. It was an ambitious and expensive building for its time and place. Designed by Isaac Fitch of Lebanon, Conn., it was also used as town hall during its early years. Originally it sat at the head of State Street, but in 1839 it was moved to 70 Huntington Street. It is not only the oldest courthouse in Connecticut, but one of the oldest courthouses that continuously operates in America.

Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, Marquis de Lafayette and Horace Greeley spoke at the New London County Courthouse.

For more information, click here.

Pownalborough Courthouse

Pownalborough Courthouse – still standing and open to the public

The Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden, Maine, dates to 1761. Located at 23 Courthouse Road in Dresden, It is the only courthouse that remains from Maine’s colonial era.

The town of Dresden was named Pownalborough after Massachusetts governor Thomas Pownall. The court was established when Lincoln County separated from neighboring York. The building was designed by Boston architect Gershom Flagg and was visited by Benedict Arnold, Robert Treat Paine and John Adams, who tried cases there.

In addition to serving as a courthouse, the building also housed a tavern – as many early courthouses did. Adams’ trip there, though arduous, helped him build his practice, and he maintained fond memories of Pownalborough.

“I am sorry that the name of Pownalborough has been changed to that of Dresden,” he wrote, “that of a virtuous and sensible man to that of a scene of frivolity. Pownall was a Whig, a friend of liberty, a lover of his country, and he considered North America part of his country as much as England, Scotland, or Ireland.”

The courthouse today is maintained by the Lincoln County Historical Society and is open in the summer months as a museum. For more information, click here.

Plymouth Old County Courthouse

Plymouth Old Town House, Plymouth, Mass.

Known as Plymouth Old County Courthouse or the Old Town House, the oldest courthouse in Massachusetts was built in 1749. It is believed to be the oldest wooden courthouse in the United States. It stands on 4 Town Square, the site of the courthouse built in 1620 by the Plymouth Colony settlers. Another courthouse had been built in 1670, and parts of it may have been used in the Old Town House.

Like the New London County Courthouse, it was originally used as a courthouse and town hall. It was built by Peter Oliver, a Loyalist and brother of Andrew Oliver, the tax stamp administrator who was hanged in effigy by the Sons of Liberty. From 1820, when the town built a new courthouse, to the early 1950s, it was used for town offices.

The building was later restored and opened as the 1749 Court House and Museum. It is free to the public and open during the summer. Nearby are the Burial Hill cemetery, The First Parish Church, Brewster Gardens and Leyden Street, which was laid out by the Pilgrims. For more information, click here.

Old Grafton County Courthouse

Old Grafton County Courthouse, Plymouth, N.H.

The Old Grafton County Courthouse located at 1 Court Street in Plymouth, N.H., can claim roots dating at least to 1774.

It was used as a meeting house during the Revolution and later a library and a wheelwright shop. Its most famous moment came in 1805 when it was the site of Daniel Webster’s first court pleading.

Today the building has been restored, and it is maintained as a museum of the Plymouth Historical Society. It’s open for visitors during the summer. The building is not in its original location, however, as it was moved in 1823 when its service as a courthouse ended. For more information, click here.

Kent County Courthouse

The Kent County Courthouse in East Greenwich, R.I., was built in 1804-05 to replace the courthouse built in 1750, when Kent County was split off from Providence County.

The courthouse was used by the Rhode Island Legislature, which sat in each county seat on a rotating schedule until 1854. Then, only the buildings in Providence and Newport were used. The Rhode Island State House was built in 1901, and the courthouse was turned over to Kent County. In 1908, an architectural firm gutted the building and rebuilt the interior, which was common during the Colonial Revival. For years it was used as a town hall. Today the courthouse is used by probate court, which makes it the oldest active courthouse in Rhode Island.

Windham County Courthouse

Windham County Court House, Newfane, Vt.

The Windham County Courthouse in Newfane, Vt. dates to 1825, when it was built as a simple, boxy structure to carry out court business. Additions in 1853 and 1907 gave the courthouse its current Greek Revival appearance, with a porch and massive Doric columns.

The courthouse replaced the Westminster Courthouse, which dated to 1707 and was the site of the 1775 Westminster Massacre and was, in 1777, the location where Vermonters met to declare their independence.

The building is still an active courthouse. It can be found on the Newfane Green. For more information, click here.

Photos: New London County Courthouse, by By Beyond My Ken – Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29628529; Old Plymouth County Courthouse by Swampyank at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18002605

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Franklin Pierce Discovers the Body of Nathaniel Hawthorne in New Hampshire

In 1852, Nathaniel Hawthorne did the unthinkable: He wrote a campaign biography for presidential candidate Franklin Pierce.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Critics thought such hackwork beneath Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was, after all, the acclaimed author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables.

Nathaniel Hawthorne didn’t care. He had befriended Pierce during their student days in the 1820s at Bowdoin College, and he would be loyal to him until the end.

Pierce ran for president of the United States as a Northerner sympathetic to the South. As president, he appointed Nathaniel Hawthorne as the U.S. consul in Liverpool, a plum job that paid him well to do little so he could continue his writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Stands By His Man

Four years later, Pierce left office as one of the most reviled ex-presidents in history. He had tried to unify the North and South, but drove them further apart. Most of his friends, neighbors and political allies abandoned him, though Hawthorne never did.

While serving as consul in England, Hawthorne had traveled the countryside. He wrote a series of sketches called Our Old Home. Back home on July 2, 1863, he wrote the book’s dedication to Franklin Pierce.

It read, in part,

…it rests among my certainties that no man’s loyalty is more steadfast, no man’s hopes or apprehensions on behalf of our national existence more deeply heartfelt, or more closely intertwined with his possibilities of personal happiness, than those of FRANKLIN PIERCE.

His publisher, James T. Fields, begged him to leave it out. Nathaniel Hawthorne replied, “if he is so exceedingly unpopular that his name is enough to sink the volume, there is so much the more need that an old friend should stand by him.”

Hawthorne’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson ripped out the dedication before putting the book on his library shelf.

White Mountains

Months later, Pierce’s wife Jane died. Nathaniel Hawthorne stood by the side of the lonely, grieving ex-president as she was laid to rest. Pierce noticed Hawthorne seemed in ill health and adjusted his collar to keep him warm.

In the spring of 1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne decided a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire would be good for his health. Pierce agreed to go with him. Hawthorne’s wife Sophia told the ex-president he needed help getting in and out of carriages because of his weak eyesight and uncertain steps.

Franklin Pierce by Matthew Brady

The two friends left Boston together and traveled to Pierce’s home in Concord, N.H. They went to Dixville Notch once the weather was good enough.

On May 18, 1864, they returned through Plymouth. They turned in at the Pemigewasset Hotel, on the site of what is now a Plymouth State University dormitory.

Nathaniel Hawthorne took a nap, ate a bit of food and drank a cup of tea before going to bed. Pierce, in a letter four years later, described what happened next.

The Death of Hawthorne

“Passing from his room to my own, leaving the door open and so placing the lamp that its direct rays would not fall upon him and yet enable me to see distinctly from my bed, I betook myself to rest too, a little after ten o’clock,” he wrote.

“But I awoke before twelve, and noticed that he was lying in a perfectly natural position, like a child, with his right hand under his cheek. That noble brow and face struck me as more grand serenely calm then than ever before. With new hope that such undisturbed repose might bring back fresh vigor, I fell asleep again; but he was so very restless the night previous that I was surprised and startled when I noticed, at three o’clock, that his position was identically the same as when I observed him between eleven and twelve.

“Hastening softly to his bedside, I could not perceive that he breathed, although no change had come over his features. I seized his wrist, but found no pulse; ran my hands down upon his bare side, but the great, generous, brave heart beat no more.”

The body of Nathaniel Hawthorne was returned to Concord, Mass., where he was laid to rest. His pallbearers included Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier and Louis Agassiz.

Franklin Pierce was not among them.

With thanks to Dead Presidents. You can read more about Hawthorne’s milieu in Concord — their lives, their loves and their work — in American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever. This story about Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce was updated in 2023.

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The 1936 Flood That Engulfed New England

The great 1936 flood began on March 11 with a downpour in New England that didn’t stop for 14 days. The rain then unleashed a flood that covered half of the Eastern United States. Pinkham Notch in New Hampshire recorded 22.43 inches of rain over the period.

Hartford underwater. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Hartford underwater during the 1936 flood. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Nobody in New England had ever seen anything like it. And nobody ever would again.

During two rainy weeks, the United States experienced two consecutive downpours, among the largest and heaviest in history.

And then a third downpour prolonged the destruction and misery.

Raging Torrents

Rivers turned into raging torrents from New Hampshire’s notches to the Long Island Sound. The Androscoggin rose to record levels in Auburn, Maine, and so did the Merrimack in Lowell, Mass. Also reaching never-before-seen heights: the Pemigewasset in Plymouth, N.H., and the Connecticut in Dalton, N.H., Montague, Mass., Hartford and Thompsonville, Conn.

The 1936 flood burst dams, wiped out roads, ruined businesses and washed away homes. As many as 200 people died and 14,000 left homeless.

The disaster prompted Congress to act. On June 22, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Flood Control Act of 1936. It empowered the Army Corps of Engineers to build hundreds of miles of levees, flood walls and channel improvements. The Corps dammed approximately 375 new major reservoirs.

In 1988, Joseph Arnold wrote in The Evolution of the 1936 Flood Control Act that the engineering projects had

…saved billions of dollars in property damage and protected hundreds of thousands of people from anxiety, injury, and death. They stand today as one of the more significant marks of our technical skill and humane spirit.

The 1936 Flood Begins

Ice did much of the damage. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Ice did much of the damage during the 1936 flood. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The worst possible weather combined to produce the 1936 flood: A warm front that stalled on March 11 followed an unusually cold, snowy winter. With that warm front came the first storm, centered on the White Mountains. It lasted until March 13 and dumped five inches of rain onto Maine, New Hampshire and parts of Vermont.

Weather forecasters had accurately predicted the 1936 flood, and ample warning prevented much loss of life. Ice jams on rivers caused most of the destruction.

The 1936 flood laid waste to mills, homes, factories and highway bridges. A tremendous volume of snow melt and rain water poured into ice-blocked channels of rivers and tributaries. Ice carried away bridges over the Kennebec and the Androscoggin rivers and washed out mills and railroad tracks in Maine near Bethel and Rumford. Ice sheared off a 5,000 sq. ft. section of granite from the Holyoke Dam. The Maine Central Railroad did manage to save its bridge above the Great Falls at Lewiston-Auburn by positioning cars full of gravel on it.

The Second Storm

A second series of torrential downpours from March 16-19 swelled the Merrimack and Piscataquog rivers. Eighteen feet of water flowed through downtown Hooksett, N.H., sweeping away utility poles, barns, houses, schools, stores, roads and railway embankments.

Nashua underwater during the 1936 flood

By March 18, the north branch of the Nashua River rose a foot every hour in Lancaster, N.H. Phoebe Lovely had to be rescued by rowboat from her home before floodwaters washed it away. The March 19 Clinton Daily Item reported, “It is a weird and awesome sight in Lancaster, today, as the town is virtually an island.”

In Nashua, N.H., the Souhegan River flooded factories and homes with eight feet of water. Families were evacuated by boat.

Manchester, N.H., was also underwater. Police worked around the clock evacuating families from their homes, snatching some from rooftops as the Merrimack washed away houses. The governor activated the National Guard to help police.

Zoo Rescue

The animal trainers at the zoo in Manchester had worked through the night of March 18-19 to save the animals, carrying small creatures across the road to a safer building. They bodily lifted two bears and two leopards to the top of their cages. But by 7:30 a.m. the waters had risen so fast the zookeepers took refuge on the building’s roof. As ice and debris battered the flimsy building, police spent hours trying to rescue them. Finally two civilians in a boat managed to row one, then the other to safety.

Drowning was a risk during the 1936 flood. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection

The 1936 flood badly damaged the giant mills owned by the bankrupt Amoskeag Industries, washing away any hope that the company could revive.

The Union Leader proclaimed, “Disaster and Death from Mountain Notches to the Sea.” In New Hampshire alone, 87 cities and towns suffered flood damage.

Death and Destruction

In Williamstown, Mrs. Hiram S. Drury dropped dead on March 18 as she watched raging flood waters pour through a ruptured dam. A six-mile ice-jam on the Connecticut River burst through a hydropower dam in Vernon. State police ordered the valley evacuated.

Two children, 5 and 7, were washed away by a swollen stream as they crossed a footbridge in Hancock. Harold Smith, a father of 12, drowned while trying to divert floodwaters from the lumber mill that employed him.

People watching the Merrimack River in Lawrence, Mass. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

People watching the Merrimack River in Lawrence, Mass., during the 1936 flood. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The Merrimack floodwaters damaged mills from Manchester and Nashua in New Hampshire to Haverhill, Lowell and Lawrence in Massachusetts. The river rose 68 feet in Lowell, destroying businesses along the northern banks. Jack Kerouac’s father Leo lost his print shop to the floodwaters. The disaster consigned him to poverty and alcoholism.

Jack Kerouac later described the flood in his novel Dr. Sax as ‘an unforgettable flow of evil and of wrath and of Satan barging thru my hometown.’

Evacuees

In Andover, Mass., the Shawsheen rose halfway up first floor windows, and residents evacuated by canoe, motorboat and rowboats. The power went out for days, and doctors volunteered to immunize hundreds of residents against typhoid at the American Legian hall.

Amherst College President Stanley King got a phone call from a town selectman at 11 pm on March 18. The raging Connecticut River forced evacuation of the towns of Sunderland and Hadley. Massachusetts College had already agreed to take Sunderland. Would Amherst take Hadley, he asked?

Within two hours, cots and blankets were set up in the Amherst gym. The athletic director organized faculty and students with cars to drive the evacuees to the campus. And faculty wives staffed the cafeteria, making coffee and food for the flood victims.

Few of the Hadley residents spoke English, so Polish-speaking students interpreted for them. Students played with the children and entertained them with music. They stayed for nine days.

Downstream in Connecticut the Connecticut River flooded its banks along with the Farmington River. A 200-foot-wide dam in New Hartford, Conn., burst, releasing 8 million gallons of water and isolating the village of Satan’s Kingdom. Residents of the Farmington Valley had to flee for their lives.

Springfield

Floodwaters inundated Springfield, drowning 18 miles of mostly residential city streets. The city ordered people to evacuate, and 20,000 found shelters in schools, hospitals and a monastery. Those who stayed in their homes had to be evacuated from rooftops.

Looting began on March 20 when the power went out. Police had orders to shoot on sight.

When the waters receded, mud covered the city. But the Works Progress Administration provided much-needed jobs to clean up the city. The government hired 1,000 women to make clothing for the flood victims.

Hartford’s Worst Flood Ever

Property damage from the 1936 flood was tremendous. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Connecticut River floodwaters rose 38 feet in Hartford, a record that still stands. Food and medical supplies were stored at Hartford High School for safety, but had to be moved as the floodwaters rose relentlessly.

Southern New England Telephone’s central office on Trumbull Street was flooded with 20 feet of water. Firefighters tried to pump out the company’s building on Jewell Street, but abandoned their steam pump to the rising waters.

National Guard units patrolled the Hartford city streets along with the Coast Guard and police, rescuing citizens in rowboats and taking them to temporary shelters.

Not a single phone in the city worked. Switchboard operators came to work by rowboat to restore phone service. They then had to walk along an emergency catwalk from one building to the next.

The power went out, and surgeons performed operations at Mt. Sinai hospital under battery-powered searchlights. At the Bond Hotel, guests checking out were rowed from the staircase to the desk to settle up and then floated to the railroad station.

Many small merchants were wiped out. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The 1936 flood wiped out many small merchants. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Cleanup

When the floodwaters receded, buildings appeared in the middle of the street, barns upended and houses far from their foundations.

The flood wiped out many small businesses, and it destroyed pews and altars at St. Anthony’s Church in downtown Hartford. On March 24, a 28-year-old Hartford man, Charles Serafini, stepped into a deep pit on Van Dyke Avenue and drowned.

By then, the monumental cleanup of the 1936 flood had begun. Cellars were pumped out, buildings were inspected for safety and tons of debris were hauled away. Workers dynamited debris that collected next to the highway bridges.

On April 5, 1936, The Hartford Courant published a pictorial souvenir of ‘the Disastrous Flood of 1936.’ It said:

Hartford is slowly recovering from the most terrifying and spectacular experience in its history – a flood, the vivid impressions of which will live forever in the memories of those who saw and went through it.

This story about the 1936 flood was updated in 2023.

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