Victory Park Historic District - Manchester, NH
Posted by: silverquill
N 42° 59.538 W 071° 27.615
19T E 299439 N 4762896
The Victory Park Historic District includes the park with its many monuments and the surrounding buildings including the Manchester Historical Society Building, Carpenter Memorial Library and the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Waymark Code: WM2QFB
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 12/07/2007
Views: 90
The VICTORY PARK Historic District comprises 55 acres. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 due to the significance of the socialand architectural history of the park and the buildings in its vicinity.
The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company laid out the streets in this part of the city in 1838. This park, originally called Concord Common, was the first of six parks deeded to the city by the Amoskeag for the benefit of its citizens. The park was originally twice this size, extending one more block to the west. At different times the park was used as a playground for children, as the site of an early farmer’smarket, and at one time it was divided up into garden plots for the neighbors to use.
The park was renamed Victory Park in 1929 as a memorial to the allied victory in World War I.
The centerpiece of Victory Park is the VICTORY MONUMENT, created by artist Lucien-Hippolyte Gosselin. Gosselin was educated in Paris and from 1920 until his death in 1940 he was a teacher at the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Near this monument is the RENÉ GAGNON MEMORIAL, dedicated in 1995. Gagnon was a young worker at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company before enlisting in the Marines in World War II. On February 23, 1945, he was called upon to carry a flag up Mount Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Rene then helped to raise this flag on top of the mountain, an event that was memorialized in the famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal.
Street address: 405 Pine, 148 Concord, 111 and 129 Amherst Sts. Manchester, NH United States
County / Borough / Parish: Hillsborough County
Year listed: 1996
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering, Person
Periods of significance: 1929, 1914
Historic function: Education, Government, Landscape, Recreation And Culture
Current function: Commerce/Trade, Education, Landscape, Recreation And Culture
Privately owned?: no
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Hours of operation: Not listed
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions: Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.
|