Manchester City Library

I grew up on stories and tales about the history of New Hampshire and the local area that I grew up in.  My father loves history and he tried his darnedest to instill this love and pride of our history into all of his children.  Many an evening was spent listening to tales of local color and strange events; like the  glass coffin that Doctor Cobb had been interred in down in a place that the locals call Barn Door Gap.  Legend has it that he was placed in the glass coffin along with alcohol to preserve his body and left in a family vault.  Legend also states that some young men from the local boys boarding school broke into the vault and sampled the alcohol one evening.  Can you imagine the nightmares I had after hearing that one? Then there was the time that a few of my ancestors decided to thaw out the blasting caps on some sticks of dynamite near the kitchen wood stove and succeeded in  blowing up a large farm house in what is now affectionately called “Dynamite Corner”.  (That branch of the family tree is extinct.)

You don’t have to go far in the state to stumble upon a place of historic significance and local color.  And if you are reading this blog post from inside the library, well, you just happen to be in an important historically preserved building.  Since May is historic preservation month use this as an opportunity to visit and support the special places that hold and preserve your cherished family, town and state history.  If you are interested in the preservation of historic, cultural and scenic resources of your town and of the state, you might wish to visit a historic site, join a historical society or maybe even take a walking “historic” tour with your local historical society. We also happen to have wonderful books on local history, the preservation of old homes,  state history, tall tales and family histories.  You never know what you might learn or what treasure you might find waiting for you.  See you at the library!

~Yvonne~