Nov. 17, 1965: Opening Day at Concord’s Everett Arena draws thousands of skaters. “They came streaming across the river bridge and down the hill from the Heights – the moppets and the middle-aged and here and there and old-timer. . . . This community, long known in sports circles as the ‘Cradle of American Hockey,’ celebrated in a mood of holiday revelry,” the Monitor reports.
Nov. 17, 2001: The plan to build a senior center in Concord, one of two state capitals in the country without such a facility, receives a positive response from the planning board, the Monitor reports.
Nov. 18, 1730: The Rev. Timothy Walker is ordained at Pennycook (later Rumford, then Concord), the community’s first minister.
Nov. 18, 2003: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in favor of gay marriage, and many in the Granite State can’t help but wonder whether New Hampshire will be next to embrace reform. “I think it definitely provides inspiration that at some point we can get the Legislature to pass a marriage bill accepting gay and lesbian couples, says Susan Hassan a Concord attorney and gay rights activist.
Nov. 19, 1863: Lyman D. Stevens of Concord represents New Hampshire at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa. He is near Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg address. A prominent lawyer, Stevens will later serve as Concord’s mayor, a state senator, a school board member, a bank president and president of New Hampshire College at Durham.
Nov. 19, 1892: Concord’s Snowshoe Club, a men’s organization, has its first celebration at its new cabin at the end of today’s Via Tranquilla. Twelve members gather “in honor of Grover Cleveland and Ward 4.” E.W. Batchelder, apparently having “counted too heavily upon the strength of one Benjamin Harrison” in that month’s presidential election, pays for dinner.
Nov. 19, 2001: The Concord City Council makes a three-year, $150,000 commitment to the downtown, and on terms that downtown merchants want. The merchants hope to join the Main Street Program, an initiative to help preserve and sustain downtowns across the country.
Nov. 20, 1884: The Evening Monitor’s City Notes column reports: “One week from today is Thanksgiving. Let the turkeys paste that in their hats.”
Nov. 21, 1987: On a gusty day during which the temperature never hits 20 degrees, Concord High School defeats Salem 14-7 to win its first state football championship since 1974.
Nov. 21, 2000: Frank Monahan, a basketball coach revered locally and well-known nationally, dies of a heart attack at age 60. His coaching career included stints at Bishop Brady High School, Concord High School and Merrimack College and in the United States Basketball League. He also worked as an NBA talent scout in New England.
Nov. 21, 2001: The Brick Tower, the last independently owned motel in Concord, will close at the end of the month. The 47-room motel, which opened in 1958, could not compete with the newer hotels in the area.
Nov. 21, 2002: Seventy-five nonunion state employees gather at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord to voice frustration after discovering they must pay the state employees’ union for the cost of contract negotiations, and if the employees don’t hand over that monthly tithe, they could get fired.
Nov. 21, 2003: On the last day of the filing period, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich file for the New Hampshire presidential primary at the secretary of state’s office in Concord. At closing time, the office registers the nine major Democratic candidates, President Bush and 29 long-shot candidates hoping for a moment of national publicity.
Nov. 22, 1987: Jack Germond, syndicated columnist, visiting the Monitor on the day after a convention at St. Anselm’s College during which the Democratic presidential candidates all spoke, is asked about Rep. Richard Gephardt. He praises Gephardt’s speech and adds: “There may be a human being in there somewhere.”
Nov. 22, 2000: For the first time in recent memory, the tax rate in Penacook will be higher than in the rest of Concord, city officials announce.
Nov. 22, 2003: The 52nd annual Holiday Magic Christmas Parade in Concord goes to the dogs, the dogs on the Rolling Bones 4-H club parade float, that is. Joining the canines on the two mile route up Loudon Road are high school marching bands, children on unicycles, Shriners in tiny Jeeps, horses, Hooters girls and fire engines.
Nov. 23, 1911: The New Hampshire Historical Society dedicates its building in Concord. The building was designed by Guy Lowell, also architect of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and financed by philanthropist Edward Tuck. The society was previously housed on North Main Street in what are now the law offices of Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell.
Nov. 23, 2002: The Holiday Magic Parade, which has marked the beginning of the holiday season in Concord for 51 years, marches up Loudon Road in Concord. The procession includes emergency response vehicles, floats, decorated vehicles, equestrian units, clowns, eight marching bands and Santa Claus.
