Millyard Museum of Manchester: History of the Queen City
Housed in what was once Mill No. 3 of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., the Millyard Museum on Bedford Street tells the story of Manchester (nicknamed the Queen City), from the first natives who fished at Amoskeag Falls 11,000 years ago through the 21st century. The Millyard Museum's signature exhibit, Woven in Time: 11,000 Years at Amoskeag Falls, sends visitors back in time to the first evidence of human habitation near Amoskeag Falls.
Museum admission affords you the chance to peruse artifacts from these Paleo-Indians at the waters of the Merrimack River that would later drive Amoskeag Manufacturing’s mills, as well as see what life was like for the immigrants who came to Manchester to work.
Among other exhibits, the museum tells the tale of Amoskeag Manufacturing's shaping of Manchester in the 1800s, after the company had been successfully operating for nearly a decade. The company owned about 17,000 acres of land for the millyard in the early part of the 19th century and, after laying out the streets of what would eventually be called Manchester, sold off lots of their land to the the municipality -- then called Derryfield -- to do with as they wanted beginning in 1838.
Visitors can also view examples of Revolutionary War artifacts, including some owned by Gen. John “Live Free or Die” Stark, who penned the words that would become the New Hampshire state motto in an 1809 letter to fellow veterans of the 1777 Battle of Bennington. Stark lived his later years in a home on North River Road nearby. Stark's home burned down in the mid-1800s.
This vibrant museum has more than 600,000 pieces from the collection for visitors to peruse, which includes a neon sign from Sundial Shoes, a local Manchester shoe company, and the Torrent #5 hand tub fire pumper that dates from 1844 among others. Ongoing family friendly hands-on activities, as well as murals, historical objects, videos, paintings, and furniture, among other exhibits are spread throughout the museum, along with looms from the mill and a model of the Amoskeag Millyard at its height.
Visitors can also see an example of Elm Street on a Thursday night during the height of Amoskeag Manufacturing’s heyday — complete with lighted arches, a cobblestone street, and the State Theatre, which is used as a rotating exhibition hall. An animated explanation of how water power drove the mill rounds out the detailed story about Amoskeag Manufacturing and how it created its famous mile of mills along the river as it ran through Manchester.
The Millyard Museum is open year-round, and if you’re not intrigued by the exploration of Manchester’s past, you can always go to the Visitor Orientation Center to discover the New Hampshire Scenic and Cultural Byway System as well as get a much-condensed introduction to the city’s history.
Posted on Jan 26, 2011 by Matt Delman
