AUDIO TEXT:
Site Number 32. Central Street.
At one time this hillside was part of the old 17th century Smith land grant. Over the generations, the land was divided among various descendants—one of whom was Walter Bryant, the surveyor for whom “Bryant Rock” was named. Walter Bryant’s daughter married Edward Smith, and they had two sons named Edward and Walter Bryant. A map depicting Lamprey River Village around 1800 shows one house here, labeled “E. Smith.” Whether it was Edward Smith the father or Edward Smith the son, the house still stands, now numbered 6, 8 and 10 Central Street.
There almost wasn’t a Central Street at all. When the Newmarket Manufacturing Company first offered to buy land for a street here, Edward and Walter Bryant Smith were in the middle of suing the mills for blowing up Bryant Rock down on the Salt River—their boundary marker. Years later—after they had lost that lawsuit—the brothers agreed to sell; and Central Street was laid out in 1832.
In the years that followed, Central Street became home to boarding houses, saloons, beauty shops, grocers and pool halls. Up the hill, when the Polish Club moved in, it replaced a bowling alley and an Interstate Express office run by Charles Provost from over his stable.
Many families lived in tenements on Central Street, but there were a few single-family homes. In #12, an elderly shoemaker appropriately named Mr. Leathers lived and died here. Another single-family home is the Pelletier residence where the old spring of Spring Street still bubbles up and heads downhill, running through the basement at #25.
The old Edward Smith house has passed through many hands in the last couple of centuries. It may have been the 1885 location of “Houde’s Hotel on Central Street” where two drunken men, the Ladabush brothers were denied admittance to the hotel. They went on a rampage, breaking just about every window in the building and attacking one of the guests with a knife. Fortunately, during the 20th century, things calmed down there.
For more stories about Central Street businesses and families, check out our online link.
Site No. 33 is on the north corner of Central and Main Streets.
END OF AUDIO TEXT. See below for photos and more information.
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The original site of all this property was part of land once owned by the Indian fighter Capt. John Smith (1669-1744) who occupied the old Davis-Smith Garrison on Bay Road. He was a successful lumberman & surveyor who owned almost the entire western shoreline of Great Bay as as well as the first and second falls of the Lamprey. That large grant was willed and divided thru successive generations, and the Central Street area was deeded down through the family to Walter Bryant.
Bryant had an extensive garden and orchard which included Central Street and ran northly to Elm St and then westerly to Spring Street and back down easterly towards Main Street. Walter Bryant’s daughter Mary married Edward Smith and this parcel was in turn deeded to their sons Edward and Walter Bryant Smith.
These two brothers joined forces and battled in court for nine years and lost to the NMCo over charges of trespass and destruction of property when the mills blew up Bryant Rock (the Smith brothers boundary line in the Lamprey River). The two brothers eventually sold a strip of their land in 1823 after haggling over terms to the NMCo. The Company then laid out an access lane in October 1832 from Main to Spring Street and called it “Central Street”.
The 1820 Savage map lists only one house in the area now known as Central Street, and that belonged to E. Smith (the dotted street markers were added years later).
Walter Bryant Smith was active in the Parish 1794 & 1799, in 1796 he signed a petition nominating Wentworth Cheswill to serve as Justice of the Peace; 1792 he signed a petition to re-appoint as Justice of the Peace one James Smith, Esq. He was a business patern with James Pickering in 1802, deeded land 1807, was on the old church roll 1814, and both he and his brother Edward were on the committee to build a meeting house at Lamprey River 1826.
Walter erected a store in 1827 on Main Street at the corner of the future Central St. The second story was donated as the first hall for public worship of the newly formed “The First Religious Society of Lamprey River Village” the forerunner to the Methodist Church. Walter died in 1853 at age 79, his wife Mary died in Portsmouth in 1867 at age 91; they were survived by five children, two sons and three daughters.
Walter’s two sons Edward and Samuel were carpenters who built many stores along Main Street and by 1840 they had built every house on Central Street except one; however, which one has never specified.
Edward left Newmarket and from Bangor Maine went upriver to start a lumber business. He hit a snag and enlisted the help of his brother Samuel. Samuel (who it was said had more business acumen than another man in Newmarket) went to Salem, Mass. and sought Mr. Pingree, a wealthy shipping merchant at the Union Wharf. Pingree and gave him a loan of 100,000 dollars cash — all in 1,000 denominations, an unheard-of amount in the day. The brothers made a substantial profit in the Maine lumber business and paid the loan back prior to its due date.
Perhaps the oldest house still standing albeit quite different from 1823 would be today ’s apartment house numbered #6, 8 & 10 Central Street. John and Wanda Jakubowicz lived in the house from
the 1950s until the 1980s. John maintained an ancient pear tree growing in the back yard was part of the old garden of Walter Bryant. The tree was stunted and gnarled, but still alive and blooming until the 1990s when new owners pulled it out and put in a crushed gravel driveway.
On the north side of Central Street from Main Street going up the street westerly towards Spring Street are the names: Mrs. S.Wiggin, E. Houde, A.Lathers, Mrs. Blake, A.L. Whitehorn,
On the south side from Main Street: S.A. Haley, a Livery Stable, Mrs. A. Ryan, J. Door, A. Fourche, Mrs. Dockham
Street numbers are even on the north side from Main to Spring Streets.
Today’s Numbers are not the same as they were prior to 1950.
Today the numbers run #2 thru #24; there is no #4, #14, #16, or #20.
In 1854 Benjamin Brooks sold a piece of land and a house to Mary Smith, and a Mrs. Smith is located here on the 1857 map.
Edward and Samuel Smith’s sister Mary married Simon Greene whose son was Dr. Samuel Greene the builder and owner of the Masonic Block constructed in 1870.
Doctor Samuel Greene bought the property and the small Greek Revival one ½ story wood frame house with a large bay window from S.A. Haley ten years later.
Greene then sold this house in 1880 to Walter Wiggin; however, the house caught fire and was completely demolished in April 1894. The house now standing was constructed after the 1894 fire and follows the footprint of the original home.
Walter Wiggin was a Druggist (1828- 1886 ) and a 40 year-old widower who remarried in 1868 six years after his wife Anne died. He married in town a 20 year old bride, Sarah A. England, a woman half his age. In 1870 he and Sarah lived with Walter’s brother George Wiggin (age 42) w/o occupation, as well as Sarah’s two brothers William (age 19) and George (age 18). Both England bothers worked in the cotton mill. They all lived in this small home.
Walter died in 1886 and is buried with his first wife Ann in Riverside Cemetery. When Sarah died in 1923 she left her entire estate to be divided by her grandnephews Thiran, Walter, Herbert W. Wiggin, Jr. and Harry E. Meehan.
The 1892 map lists a Mrs. S. Wiggin as owner. Sarah sold the house to Mary J. Dearnley in 1894 we don’t know if she sold the house prior to the fire, or just the lot. Sarah Wiggin moved to Dover, purchased a house on Central Avenue and become a landlady of her own home and took in boarders. Mary was the widow of Samuel Dearnely (1830 -1897) the principal stockholder in Sovereigns of Industry (see the Brooks Building, Site # 35 ). After Samuel’s death Mary lived moved up the street to #12 Central Street and took in 4 boarders .
#6, 8 & 10 Central Street
– as numbered today it is believed to be the oldest house on the street. The basic construction pre-dates 1820, it was a house built for one of Walter Bryant’s heirs (either Edward or his brother Walter Bryant Smith). The 1820 map lists it as belonging to E. Smith. Walter Bryant Smith died in 1853 and his widow is listed here on the 1857 map.
The house is one of the few pre-NMCo. domestic buildings surviving in Newmarket. Despite later alterations it retains much of its original form: five bays, entrances at center and left side of façade with a large center chimney. In 1880 it was a dwelling, and within the next seven years the building was turned into tenements. More recently, a porch was built across the first story, and the house was covered with aluminum.
Ricard Candee’s Historic District work in 1975 tells us the building was converted to tenements between 1880 and 1887. On the 1892 map it was the residence of A.E. Houde. Allard Edouard Houde and Hermine Auger were both born in Canada and married in Manchester, NH in 1873. They were only in Newmarket between 1881 and 1897. Hermine was the daughter of Pierre Auger, the soap maker on Packers Falls Road.
On April 23rd, 1885 there was a building known as Houde’s Hotel on Central Street. Exactly where it was located, we don’t know; but it may very well have served as the Houde’s house as well as a business. The Newmarket Advertiser reported that a company of French Canadians were in town to perform a play for the benefit of the St. Jean de Baptist Society of which Mr. Houde was president. After the performance the players and a small group of invited guests returned to the “Houde Hotel on Central Street” for an oyster supper. Two Frenchmen of Newmarket named Levi and Alexander Ladabush, both under the influence of liquor, appeared at the door and were denied entrance to the hotel as it was a private party. When Mr. Houde closed and locked the door, they became incensed, grabbed a club and started to smash all the windows in the lower story of the building.
As Mr. Houde went out the rear door to get the police, a Mr. J.Albert Beauchemin, went out back to assist him. When he stepped out onto the piazza one of the brothers assaulted him and cut him in five places about the neck and shoulders with a knife. Beauchemin escaped back into the hotel and the Ladabushes fled to their home nearby. Dr. Elton was called and dressed the wounds while the police captured both brothers. They were held in the jail overnight and arraigned by Justice Mellows in the morning on charges of assault with intent to kill. They were bound over on S1,200 cash bail and sent to the Exeter jail to await trial in October.
Mr. Beauchecmin remained in the hotel to recover from his wounds. He worked a postal clerk from Manchester and had come to Newmarket to watch the the performance upstairs at the Catholic church (today’ Stone Church). The wounds caused him great pain, and he was unable to use one arm due to the shoulder attack. For the next few days the hotel was visited by a crowd of fascinated onlookers. Only one glass pane remained on the entire lower story of the building, and many of the sashes had been broken. The building looked as if a keg of dynamite had exploded.
When the Houde’s daughter Eugenie was born in May 1888, Edward listed his occupation on the birth certificate as a saloon keeper.
In 1894 Edward Houde placed the notice on the left in the paper. His wife Hermine’s notice three years later on the right was not for a saloon or hotel configuration, but rather it was a listing for a store and a tenement on the north side of the street. The reasons for guardianship were earlier published in June 1897 – Edward was deemed insane by the court and guardianship granted to his wife. Hermine and Edward moved to Manchester and stayed together until their deaths: Edward in 1927, and Hermine in 1936.
The house was later purchased by Felix (1874-1957) and Eva Sobozenski (1878-1934), it then was inherited by their daughter Wanda (1902-1986) and her husband John Jakubowicz (1904-1988).
The house was constructed between 1820-and 1832 as appears on the 1832 map prior to the layout of Central Street, and adjacent to the W. Smith house. This 19th Century cape code vernacular appears to be a replica of an earlier building, a one-and-a-half story wood frame with a ridge roof. Despite extensive alterations the basic house form and surviving brick chimney contribute to an earlier streetscape. Currently it has been turned into 2 apartments.
1857 – map lists a J. Blake at this site; however, this property should have been a vacant lot in 1857 and it is listed on the 1892 map as belonging to S. Blake. “The former Sarah Blake lot” is written as being on the west side of the Polish Club when the Club was put up for a mortgage sale in 1932.
1880 – A dwelling.
1892 – The map lists an A. Leathers. On July 5th, 1902 Alexander Leathers (1833-1902) died in the house at age 72, his funeral was from the residence, and he is buried in the Old Town Cemetery. Leathers resided in Newmarket most of his life, except for a few years when he was in Hutchinson, Minn. He was a cordwainer by profession until manufactured shoes forced him to find work elsewhere, so he turned to farming. In his will he left $600 to Charles Evans, son of John Evans; and all the rest of his estate to his former house keeper Miss Sarah F. Tuttle and her heirs upon her death.
The body of Miss Sarah F. Tuttle (1852-1902) was found in the bedroom of the same house in the first week of August 1902. She had been employed in the cotton mill, and she lived in the home as a housekeeper for Mr. Leathers. After his death she resided in the same house alone. Not seeing her for several days, neighbors notified Dr. Greene, who entered the home and discovered her body. It was evident she had been dead for several days, he placed the date of death at July 31st, a few days shy of 3 weeks after Alexander’s death, and he listed the cause of deatha as epilepsy. She was 50 years old and survived by one brother Albert Tuttle who was employed at the County Farm in Brentwood. Her funeral also was held from the house and the body taken to Epping for internment in the Rundlett family cemetery. She was the daughter of Mrs. Eliza Tuttle, whose maiden name was Rundlett and grew up in the old Rundlett Tavern on Main Street. The Manchester Union wrote of her: “Miss Tuttle was highly esteemed for her beautiful traits of character.”
In 1904 the property was auctioned off by Joseph N. Cilley – it included all the shoemaker’s tools and personal effects of Mr. Leathers. Cilley also owned land just west of the Leather’s property.
After 1904 it appears to have been the home of a Charles & Annie Dube “Dube” or Demers.
Wyman W Farnsworth (1888-1963) and his wife Ella (1891-1960) had resided at # 12 Central Street since 1940. William was born in Nova Scotia, and was a WW I Army Veteran; Ella was from New Brunswick, Canada and they were both employed in the shoe industry in town. They are buried Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn, MA.
Kenneth Stanley moved into the house in 1966 and purchased it from Newmarket Attorney McGuirk in 1967 who bought the property from Bruce Farnsworth, heir to the estate of Wyman & Ella Farnsworth.
At the time of Richard Candee’s study in 1978 the house was owned by Kenneth W. Stanley (1930-2013). Stanley was originally from Concord NH, and served in the US Air Force during the Korean War. He worked at Macallen Company in town and later moved to Concord NH before he died at age 82. He is buried NH Veteran’s cemetery in Boscawen.
The house last sold Jan 29,2021 by the Marsiello Group for $225,000.
The first building at this spot was a 2-story stable owned by Charles Provost. The stable is not listed on the 1904 map. Provost then operated his Express
office upstairs, and Ralph Larrivee ran a bowling alley on the first floor. The first Polish immigrants appeared in town about 1892. In 1903, nineteen members organized a Lodge of Polish National Alliance in a home basement on Nichols Avenue. The group enlarged and became the American Citizens Club of Polish Descent. In 1921 Provost sold the building to the newly formed Polish organization. The 1927 Directory lists the “Central Bowling Alleys” at this location. The Polish Club started raising funds and eventually added the hall to the building and occupied both floors. It remains active today.
(This photo of Charles Provost’s Express cart dated 1905 captured the delivery of packages to the Hotel Willey. Provost’s office operated from this spot at the beginning of the 1900s. It was part of the Interstate Express Company [the ‘original FedEx”]. The expansive organizational method of the cart construction is quite a feat in the study of balance and delivery planning.)
From the 1892 Map HOUSE WEST OF THE POLISH CLUB —NO LONGER STANDING
The lot just to the West of #18 would be the house seen on the map of 1892, of Sarah Blake (1822-1902), widow of Jethro Blake. Jethro was a blacksmith and Veteran of the War of 1812 (briefly). Born in Hampton, NH in 1797, he enlisted as a Private in Capt. P. Towle’s Company, NH Militia Sep 12, 1814 and was discharged a week later in upper New York state when the war ended. He settled in Newmarket after the war and in 1844 he married Sarah Lamos from Lee. Jethro worked as a blacksmith for the NMCo., he died in 1876 at age 79, and his wife Sarah died in the house in 1902 at age 80. They had four daughters and one son. Their daughters: Hanah (b.1834) & Sarah Jennie Blake (b.1853) both died before 1860.
Their daughter Martha (1847-1926) married her neighbor Charles H. Whitehorne, both Martha and Charles were brought up next door to each other. The last nine years of her life Martha was widowed and moved to Penacook to live with her brother George, also a widower. Her sister Amanda (1845 -1871) married cotton mill worker Andrew Tuttle in town in 1867; the couple lived with Sarah & Jethro until Amada died very young at age 26 of consumption. Andrew moved to Somersworth and remarried by 1880.
The only son of Sarah and Jethro was George (1848-1934) who learned the furniture making trade which he continued to the end of his life. In Nov 1870 he married Fanny M Bunker of Newmarket (1850-1919) and they moved to Penacook. George died at the Merrimack County Farm with no burial location listed, Fanny is buried with her parents Timothy & Augusta Bunker at Riverside.
This was the residence of the Whithorn Family. Miles (1810- ? ) and Julia A. McDaniels (1808-?) married in 1834 in Nottingham before moving to Newmarket to work in the cotton mill. The family was very prominent in the Old Methodist Church. By 1872 Miles and Julia moved to Exeter, leaving the house to their son Alphonse. Alphonse known as “A.I.”( A.I. appears to have been a popular man’s nickname at the turn of the century) was born in 1841 and worked as a pressman in a tailoring shop and as a farm laborer. He outlived all his siblings and was the last of the family lto live in Newmarket. He died in 1918 at age 76 at the County Hospital of cancer. He never married; and he had two brothers, Charles and Millard. Charles H. (1839-1916) was a stone cutter and worked in the cotton mill, he died suddenly at age 76; he had married Martha Blake (the family’s next door neighbor). MiIlard (1849-1888) also worked as a pressman in a tailoring shop who died age 39 of pneumonia, he never married. Alphonse had two sisters: Mary A. (b. 1836, d. 1898 ) she worked as a housekeeper; and Julia F. (1845-1885) who worked as a seamstress, she died in town at age 40, neither sister ever married. The house was left to Martha Blake.
Candee lists this tennement as being at this location in 1850, built in the Greek Revival style. The original owner was Doctor Samuel Greene, the
1857 map lists the owner as a Mrs. Greene, the Doctor’s wife.
1880 listed as a tenement building.
Between 1892 & 1904 it remained a tenement house owned by Bank Cashier Samuel Haley who, when he died, had his this entire estate sold to cover dubious bad loans he signed from the bank to various family members.
The Ritchie family lived in the building and the first floor was William Ritchie’s saloon. It also housed Louise’s beauty shop in the 1927 town directory, as well as William Barrett’s residence.
Barrett married William Ritchie’s daughter Alice who owned the building until the late 1960s. She rented out office space on the bottom floor which included the office of Dr. Meyers Chiropractic Clinic and Henry Homiack’s Barber shop.
The Rosa Family owned the apartment building in 1978 and there remained a front porch and a first floor balcony which faced Central Street. After the Rosa family sold the building in the 1980s, it was renovated, and the front porch and balcony were removed.
It is described in the historic district listing as being a tenement building from 1887. It is a 2 ½ storied, wood frame, ridge roof with a gable end to the street; it has four bays with two windows in the
gable, double entrances with pedimented roof and Italiante brackets, and side porches. The 1892 Post Office map has an unnamed mark on the spot – possibly the livery stable that Annie Ryan later turned into a tenement.
The building functioned between the 1900s thru 1950s for families who could easily work, shop, and live in town with no need for outside transportation other than the RR Depot which was an easy walk up Main Street.
A Mr. Morrisette owned the building perhaps in the 1930s and 40s. The families living in the building in 1930: Wilfred St.Pierre, a weaver in the silk mill (family of 4); George Wadja, a loom fixer in the silk mill, his wife and their 19 yr old son John who worked in a forge shop (Family of 3); David Morrissette, a loom fixer in the silk mill, his 24 yr old daughter Lillian was a saleswoman in a drug store, his 22 year old son Ludger worked in as a car repairman (family of 5), and Louisa Morin a 36 yr old widow [her husband Frank, a mill worker had died in 1928] leaving her with four children aged 8,6, 4, and 2 ½. (family of 5). Louisa had worked as a spooler in the mills, after Frank’s death she worked as a chambermaid.
B
y 1932 Louise Beauty shop moved up from #5 to #9 Central Street.
In 1978 the building was owned by Rowen, Inc. % Roger Palm with a PO Box in Chester, NH.
The 2022 Zillow Real estate page says the building was constructed in 1900 (although it was already listed as a tenement in 1887). It was a four-unit apartment until April 2022, when it was listed as a “6-unit Apartment, in need of repairs. It had three units on the left and three units on right, and a new Roof put on in 2021. This is a small lot has no off-site parking. “There is potential that the front of the lot could accommodate a couple compact cars or scooters/bikes”. Although looking at the building, that “potential” is pretty slim. It sold in June 2022 for $450,000.00.
The Old LaFrance Market
On the 1857 Map it is referred to as J. CIlley House, 30 Years later it is listed as “The Central House”, then in 1892 it is owned by Mrs. A. Ryan who operated her boarding house here.
She had a large room called her “Hall” which she would rent for occasions. The local Republican Party would meet here in 1893 to conduct local business.
And from 1892 until 1904 it is listed a tenement building.
During the Silver Hotel stable arson fire of March 26, 1899 sparks from the hotel stable which is just behind this
building spread to the roofs of Mrs. Annie Ryan’s and Mr. John Door’s houses. (the Door house was the next house up on Central Street). The fast work of the fire department, and the use of newly installed fire hydrants allowed the firemen to dedicate one hose for each of these two houses on Central Street, the fire damage was kept to the roofs and top floors.
Prior to 1905 D.S. Frechette & Company had a meat and grocery store in this building which Alfred LaFrance bought out in Feb 1905. He announced at the time that he purchased the two houses of Annie Ryan on Central Street and turned one into a full grocery store and meat market.
LaFrance’s Market operated out of this store from 1905 til the 1930s. Photo taken 1913 shows him delivering groceries from his horse cart.
From the rear of the building Earl Covey ran his oil delivery service also by horse cart.
In 1978 the building was owned by Charles. Wecker, % B&W Lodges- Rt 25, Windham, NH; This building has been sold & resold multiple times over the past few years. It just recently went froma four unit to six unit apartment house when last sold in 2019.
Richard Candee describes the house as an example of Victorian eclectic in Newmarket.
Two and a half-story house with a two-story bay window on left side of facade surmounted by a tiered tower. Bay windows have inset panels, central door has elaborate Italianate door hood. Corners of facade framed by delicate pilasters. Overhanging roof supported by pairs of small brackets.
The building today is a two-family house.
Listed prior to 1892 map shows it as a dwelling house. The 1892 Post Office Map indicates J. Door resided here until he left after the 1899 fire and moved to Brunswick, ME. This John Door was a mill operative, born in Canada and married Emelia Sear in Newmarket in 1881.
There is no known relationship with Jean Baptist Laporte (1865-1935) born in Canada and died in Newmarket. He anglicized his name to that of John Door. The house was renovated in 1910 by Laporte. He also owned the adjacent property #25 which he ran as a pool hall and bar saloon Jean Laporte (AKA John Door) lived on Central Street with his wife Lydia and son Wilfred for both the 1900 and 1910 census. After Prohibition in 1919 and the closing of the saloon he moved to Exeter Street and changed his profession to that of farming. In 1925 Jean B & Lydia G. Laporte sold this lot & the building along with #25 Central Street to Marie Guilmette.
1940 Census lists the families of Ernest Langlois and Joseph Emond were living in the house.
1954 Marie Guilmette separated the two lots and sold both individually to Annie Twardus. This lot was taken by the town for unpaid taxes since 1968. In 1971 Albert Caswell Sr., Tax Collector turned the deed over to the Town of Newmarket ref above unpaid taxes. 1973 The Town of Newmarket sold to John Twardus, who re-sold the same year to Willie E. Bisson. Bisson sold the property in 1977 to Gorham & Brenda Rowell. Between 1982 and 2005 the property exchanged hands five times until when last sold in 2005 to Jeff Gunderson, a Realtor at RE/MAX Results.
The 1857 Map indicates a Mrs. Marston was head of household. Her husband Charles D. Marston (1837-1868) died young at age 31 of consumption. He like his father and two brothers was a cordwainer by trade . Mary Jane Moulton (1835-1914) came to Newmarket from Nottingham with her parents when she was fourteen. She married Charles in 1855 and they had two children: Sarah F. and Charles Franklin Marston. She is listed as head of househould in 1857; hovever her husband didn’t die until 1868.
During his illness she sold the house and worked at a tailor shop while raising her two young children. She later made her living as a midwife. She eventually moved to Exeter to live with her daughter Sarah and Sarah’s husband Edward Davis. She died in Exeter in 1914 at age 79. She had been very active in the Baptist Church for 58 years. She, her husband, her daughter and her son-in-law are all buried in Riverside. Her son Charles Franklin moved to Elgin, Ill where he found employment as a watchmaker and later Job Master and foreman in a watch factory. He married and died died in Elgin in 1945 at age 89.
1887 listed as a private dwelling.
1896 - thu 1904 the property is listed as a pool hall and saloon.
In 1904 the ownership of the leased saloon and pool hall would have been Jean Laporte. A barbershop was upstairs over the pool hall. At the time, LaPorte (AKA John Dorr) owned the adjacent house lot at #23 Central Street.
Ludger and Blanche Pelletier purchased the house after WW II, and family members still reside there. Ludger later purchased from Selime Langlois a strip of wooded property that boarded his lot and ran from west to east from the rear of Spring Street down to the hotel Willey. The old “spring” from Spring Street runs underground thru the cellar foundation of the Pelletier house.
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Built in 1870, #29 Central St appears on the 1892 map as owned by a Mrs. L. Dockham as a one and a half story tenement building. In 1935,
Michael Pelczar with a family of 7 lived here. He was a carpenter, who immigrated from Poland. The building has gone thru extensive renovations since then.
In 1978 it was owned by Robert & Ruth Stevens who resided at 224 South Main Street, Newmarket. At that time on side of the building was residential, and the other was commericial. In ’78, the westerly side of the front of the house had a separate entrance and a large shop window. Subsequent owners after Stevens boardered up the old shop entrance and turned the entire building into smaller apartments and rented primarily to UNH students. There have been several different owners since 1980. Since 2002, it has been sold 7 times, last sold in 2016 as a three unit apartment house.