Wakefield Heritage Commission

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Wakefield Heritage Commission

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Wakefield Heritage Commission, 2 High Street, Sanbornville, NH.

Established in 1993, the Wakefield Heritage Commission has developed plans to restore areas of the community that reflect the importance of Wakefield, NH in transportation, manufacturing, and farming.

10/28/2026

Wakefield Wednesday - Moose Mountain

Are the mountains calling? 🏔️
Here in Wakefield, we’re fortunate to catch views of the White Mountains from so many vantage points. But closer to home, our smaller local peaks provide the perfect scenic backdrop to our villages, lakes, and fields—offering some incredible fall color these past few weeks!
Moose Mountain, in particular, holds a special place in local memory. The family-friendly ski area opened in 1961 and operated for nearly 30 years, serving as the spot where generations of locals learned to ski. (Fun fact: Copple Crown ski area opened on the opposite side of the ridge in 1965, operating through the 1970s.)
While the lifts no longer spin, there’s still plenty of adventure to be found. A hike up the old ski trail—past the disc-golf course—is a bit steep, but the reward is worth it!
Beyond the ski slopes lies the Moose Mountains Reservation. Spanning 2,744 acres of protected forest, this sanctuary features over eight miles of trails, easy woods roads, and snowmobile corridors. As you explore, you’ll encounter sweeping views, 18th-century cellar holes, and historic stone cemeteries from the area’s early farming days.
But its history goes even deeper than early settlement. These lands shelter the headwaters for three major streams that flow into the Branch, Salmon Falls, and Piscataqua rivers before reaching the Atlantic. In fact, water quality research shows that the Branch River headwaters here are among the largest and most pristine in coastal New Hampshire!
From powering historical mills in Wakefield’s early days to protecting our natural resources today, these waters remain vital to our community.
If you haven’t explored Moose Mountains Reservation yet, add it to your list! It’s a fantastic spot for a dog walk, a hike to Mountain Lake, or a peaceful afternoon in nature. Bring a camera—you might even spot a moose!

10/21/2026

Exactly 134 years ago today, on the evening of October 21, 1892, the hall at the Sanborn House in Sanbornville was packed. Wakefield’s veterans marched in together. Schoolchildren waited for their turn on the program. And, during the evening’s “Salute to the Flag,” they recited words that had appeared in print only about six weeks earlier:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”

That was the Pledge of Allegiance, brand new. Francis Bellamy wrote it for The Youth’s Companion, a popular Boston magazine for young readers. The magazine had spent years campaigning to fly a flag over every schoolhouse in America. When Congress and President Benjamin Harrison called for patriotic exercises in schools and communities on October 21, 1892, the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s first voyage, the magazine published an “Official Programme” for schools to follow. Its centerpiece was a “Salute to the Flag.” Children across the country recited it that day.

Wakefield’s program closely followed that framework. John Garvin read the President’s proclamation. Veterans raised the flag. Then came item three on the town’s program: “Salute to the Flag, School Children.”

The evening rolled on with a hymn backed by organ and orchestra, a prayer, an address by attorney Arthur L. Foote, and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Mary and Carrie Garland each gave a recitation. Bertha Garvin, Maud Sanborn, and Ethel Willey performed a piece called “Claim of the Nations.” The night closed with “Home Sweet Home.” Reports noted the room was packed.

The pledge would have sounded different from the one Americans know today. It referred to “my Flag,” not “the Flag of the United States of America,” and it did not include “under God,” a phrase added in 1954. Nor did children use today’s hand-over-heart gesture. The prescribed Bellamy salute involved extending the right arm toward the flag; Congress replaced that practice with the hand-over-heart form in 1942.

The words have changed since then, but Wakefield's children were almost certainly among the very first Americans to say them.

Are Garvins, Garlands, Sanborns, or Willeys in your family tree? Your ancestors may have been in that room.

Subscribe at historicwakefieldnh.com for more stories like this one.

Photo: The Youth's Companion, September 8, 1892. Public domain. Image courtesy of Digital Chicago History.

10/16/2026

Meet the man at the center of Wakefield’s founding: Captain David Copp.

A veteran of the French and Indian War, Copp built one of the town’s first grist and sawmills near the headwaters of Lovell’s Pond. In August 1774, he was one of just three proprietors who petitioned Governor John Wentworth to make their settlement, then called East Town, an official town. Wakefield was incorporated the very next day.

When news of Bunker Hill spread in 1775, Copp raised a company of volunteers and marched to Portsmouth to help John Sullivan and John Langdon remove the cannon. His company then marched to Winter Hill near Cambridge, arriving hours ahead of the others and earning a three-guinea bounty.

We know much of this from his wife Margaret, who recalled it in her widow’s pension application at age 88. Many of the men, she wrote, were “without guns, so anxious were they to defend the Country and achieve their independence.”

Copp went on to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the New Hampshire militia, a member of the Committee of Safety, and a leader in nearly every town committee.

Many Wakefield residents are descended from him. Is he one of your ancestors?

Read the full story and subscribe for more: https://historicwakefieldnh.com/

10/14/2026

State law required the Selectmen in every NH town to provide a complete set of weights and measures and a scale beam “which shall be duly proved and sealed by the county sealer and would be used for the standards for each town”.

In Wakefield the site for the scales for weighing hay was located at Wakefield Corner at the current junction of Province Lake Road and Wakefield Road. This landmark site is today marked by a wooden enclosure inscribed with the date 1876. Initially the structure would have been open on two sides and the weights would have been covered and there was a platform for the “load” to rest on.

After buying hay from a local farmer, the wagon would be driven to the scales and weighed by the Sealer of Weights and Measures. This person was voted into office at Town Meeting each year. The “Sealer” was usually someone who lived and worked nearby as they had to be available whenever a load had to be weighed.

After the railroad arrived in Wakefield, carloads of coal would be off loaded and put on the railroad sidings in Sanbornville. The purchaser would load his dumpcart there and go to the scales to be weighed.

Today the Hay Scales site is maintained by the Wakefield Heritage Commission. The site is the logo for the Greater Wakefield Chamber of Commerce. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, as such, no advertising signs are permitted at this site. Those placed there are removed by the Town Highway Dept. or the Commission.

To learn more about Wakefield’s historic sites and stories, visit the Wakefield Heritage Commission website: https://historicwakefieldnh.com

10/13/2026

THE ADVENT CHAPEL
3144 PROVINCE LAKE RD
OPEN HOUSE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026
12 NOON – 2 PM

The Advent Society in Woodman was organized about 1878. For several years after that, the Society worshipped in the Woodman School, District #11. About 1893 the Advent Chapel was erected and later a Parsonage. The Society was extremely active and a center of religious and social life in East Wakefield. The Parsonage burned in the early 1940’s. The Society continued to meet into the 1960’s and after that only occasional services were held in the Chapel. In 2025, the Town voted to accept the gift of a new cemetery section abutting the cemetery already owned by Wakefield and the separate lot containing the Woodman Chapel from the Society. The cemetery lands will stay with the Town, but what should we do with the Woodman Chapel?

The building will be open for public viewing from 12 noon to 2 PM on Saturday, October 17.

Please stop by and give us your ideas. We will have a brief questionnaire available so you can share your thoughts.

Town of Wakefield Selectmen
Capital Improvement Planning Committee

10/09/2026

The Wakefield Cemetery Conservancy is currently raising funds to support the preservation of Wakefield’s historic burial grounds, and two original framed ink drawings are now up for bid in its online auction.

One features the Wakefield Public Library, decorated with flags and bunting.

The other depicts the Lovell Lake House in 1930, complete with the Poor People’s Pub hobo and a truck announcing that the pub is “coming soon.”

Wakefield Public Library drawing
Opening bid: $125

Lovell Lake House drawing
Opening bid: $175

Bids increase in $25 increments, and only the winning bidder pays.

Bidding closes Sunday, October 18 at 8:00 p.m.

Pickup or delivery within Wakefield is free. If shipping is required, the winning bidder pays the shipping cost.

Bid here:
https://Wakefield-Cemetery-Conservancy.auctria.events

Those who would simply like to support the Conservancy’s work can also make a direct donation through the same link.

The Heritage Commission is pleased to help spread the word about the work of another local organization dedicated to preserving Wakefield’s history. Our historic cemeteries are an important part of that history, preserving the names and stories of generations of Wakefield residents.

10/08/2026

CAN YOU HELP US?

Did you make and paint this sign? This sign was made for the Town Pound and, as you can see, it has seen better days! Francis Marcoux replaced and donated a new one recently. Now the Heritage Commission would like to find out who did this sign. We know the Boy Scouts cleaned up the Town Pound for the Wakefield’s 200th celebration but who did the sign? We have spoken with someone who was a Scout then and he doesn’t remember doing a sign. We are saving this with our Wakefield signs display at the Heritage Centre and would like to attribute it to the maker/makers. Was it YOU? Was it SCOUTS? WHO?

09/30/2026

Wakefield Wednesday:

HAVE YOU EVER DRIVEN THROUGH THE HISTORIC DISTRICT AT WAKEFIELD CORNER AND WONDERED ABOUT THE GRANITE TROUGH WITH A HAND PUMP ACROSS FROM THE WAKEFIELD LIBRARY?
That is our historic “town pump” and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the nineteenth century, Wakefield Corner was a busy place with six stage lines merging there. Wakefield visitors would congregate to visit and also to speak with summer visitor John Greenleaf Whittier. A teenage girl, Mary Howe Gibbens of Leighton Corner, heard her Aunt Hattie Frobisher and Whittier talking on the porch, “Isn’t it awful to see all those poor horses struggling up such a steep hill, and when they finally reach the top, there is no water for them.” Mary and several friends decided to do something about that. On three consecutive afternoons a hay wagon was seen traveling the local countryside with the group of young people dressed as gypsies. They stopped at many homes offering a performance of singing and dancing and then passed a hat for donations. In the end they had raised $80! For this $80, Mark Remick who lived on Stoneham Rd chiseled out and set up the horse trough now located in Wakefield Corner. Research confirms that water was there already. That was 1895. For many years summer residents would stop here and fill their jugs for drinking water at their camps. In the 1940’s the Lovell Union Grange refurbished the pump. More recently Forest Pump of Rochester restored the pump and would then store it for the winter and put it back in the spring.

09/23/2026

Wakefield Wednesday - BALM-ELIXIR REMEDIES, SANBORNVILLE, NH (edited to clarify the approximate location of the old structure)

According to “Footsteps of the Past” book, by Elizabeth Banks MacRury, the Balm Elixir Corporation had advertising claiming it was “ The World’s Best Remedy for Family and Stable”. It was made right here in Sanbornville in the years around 1908. Elizabeth reportedly had people tell her that it was the most marvelous cure-all for any ache or pain that one had. However, the owner, Alpheus Judson Hamm, would never name the ingredients or give the recipe to anyone. His grandson, L Winston Hamm, reportedly told Elizabeth that he believed the compound to be a combination of natural, organic ingredients. I guess we’ll never know! The medicine for animals was called “Healthtone”.
Also shown is a detailed model replica of the Balm Elixir Mill structure made by Jay Ehlen and shown here in its protective acrylic case. It can be seen at the Freight House at Heritage Park Museum, home to the HO-scale model replica of the Boston & Maine Railroad in the 1909 era.
This building's original structure was the largest in Sanbornville during that time period, encompassing approximately 9,000 square feet. Historic records indicate that by 1905 this building was home to the Balm Elixir Company. It was built in 1897-1898 for Lewis, Gross and Company, footwear manufacturers and it was located behind where Sarah’s Spa used to be, now near the Town Hall’s parking lot. Sometime later, the building was home to the Wakefield Slipper Company. A third story was added to the building before the building burned in 1922.
Learn more about your town at the Wakefield Heritage Commission’s website: historicwakefieldnh.com.

09/17/2026

Thank You, Connie: Celebrating More Than 20 Years of Service to Wakefield's Heritage

On Wednesday, September 9, members of the Heritage Commission gathered with Connie Twombley's family and friends at the Poor People's Pub to celebrate and honor more than 20 years of service, as Connie retires from the Commission. She will be missed.

Connie's connection to the Heritage Commission began through her work as a Wakefield Selectman. The Board of Selectmen appoints one of its own members to represent them on the Heritage Commission, and Connie took on that role. When her time as Selectman ended, she didn't step away. She stayed on as an appointed member of the Commission and kept serving for years afterward.

The Wakefield Heritage Commission is part of town government. New Hampshire adopted the enabling legislation for heritage commissions, and Wakefield was one of the first eight towns in the state to vote one into existence in 1993. Since then, the Commission has restored and now maintains a remarkable list of town properties: the Union Railroad Station with its caboose, the 1903 snow plow, and the B&M water tower, along with the Freight House, the Wentworth Cobbler Shop, the Blacksmith Shop, the Lovell Union Grange, the East Wakefield School, and the Spinney Meeting House.

Connie's tenure covered much of the era when the Commission was actively acquiring these buildings, work made possible in part by the proceeds from restoring and selling the Garvin building. When the Commission purchased the Union Railroad Station, Commission members did the restoration work themselves as volunteers. Connie was right there with them. Longtime members remember her helping pull the blue vinyl siding off the building's exterior by hand.

Connie was also the person the Commission could always count on for fundraisers and events. She baked for every one of them, and her pumpkin whoopie pies became a favorite. As a lifelong resident of Wakefield, she has a deep well of local history to draw from, and she's shared it generously. She participated on the "Do You Remember?" panel at Heritage Day twice, telling stories about local history.

Twenty years is a long time to show up for a town, and Connie showed up for Wakefield's history again and again: with a hammer, a mixing bowl, and a good story. Thank you, Connie, for everything you've given to the Heritage Commission and to this town.

Address

2 High Street
Sanbornville, NH
03872

Website

http://www.historicwakefieldnh.com/

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