"Know Your Town"

Just as the Shakers go hand and hand with Enfield’s development, so do dams. Dams along the Knox River powered over twenty mills in Enfield Center. On the Mascoma River, dams protected Lebanon against floods and contributed to the economic development of downtown Enfield.Four dams on the Mascoma…

The greatest influence of the Shakers on the town of Enfield as we know it today was through the vision and hard work of a single man: Caleb Dyer.A New Hampshire native, Dyer was the eldest of five children in a family that joined the Shaker community in 1813, when he was thirteen. Dyer’s mother…

The schoolhouse at Enfield Center was born of the community’s need for larger and more convenient educational facilities for the area’s growing number of children. Constructed in 1851, it is believed to have replaced an earlier one-room school building located on Goodhue Hill; the new site…

With plans for a new public safety building under way, let’s take a moment to look back at the history of firefighting in Enfield.It took Enfield almost one hundred years after the town was chartered in 1761 to set up a dedicated firefighting organization. Without such an organization, Enfield’s…

With the Shaker Museum’s agreement to purchase the site of La Salette, the former Shaker lands on the western shore of Mascoma Lake have come full circle after a century of ownership changes and financial ups and downs.A murder, (see Enfield’s June 2021 newsletter), a legal judgment, and…

During Old Home Days, members of the Heritage Commission, the Enfield Historical Society and Union Church hosted dozens of visitors to the three buildings in the Enfield Center Historic Triangle — the School House, Union Church and the Town House.Visitors admired the lovely spaces, the handsome…

The area known as George Hill, which is located between the Bog Road, George Pond and the hills east of Enfield Center Village, was first settled in 1798, and George Hill Road is one of Enfield’s earliest thoroughfares. From Enfield Center the road travels a mile up the hill to the height-of-…

When the British refer to the “high street,” they mean the equivalent of our American “main street,” the commercial and social heart of town. Enfield’s High Street is this and more. While less commercial than it once was, it is still the crossroads of downtown Enfield. And it is also truly high…

Many Enfield families have contributed to the town’s growth and improvement since the town’s founding. While the names of many are lost or no longer familiar, we all remember the Huse family thanks to the park named for George Huse.George Huse was born on Shaker Hill Road in 1815 to John and…

Enfield has much of timeless New England; clapboard houses, stone walls and families whose forbears fought the American Revolution.  Nevertheless, change has been a constant here, even if it is not always easy to see.  Geological forces, still at their silent work, shape the town’s…

One of the most important roads for Enfield is one of its newest. No artery is as important as Interstate 89 for both our daily connections to jobs and errands and for reaching the world beyond the Upper Valley. I-89 originated with President Dwight Eisenhower’s signing of the Federal-Aid…

A homemade data analysis of Enfield’s topographical names reveals the influences on our town; a group (the Shakers), numerous families (the Choates, the Ibeys, etc.) and the land (hills and ponds).This month, we’ll look at a place that combines families and geography, Jones Hill, Jones Hill Road…

For the past few months, the Heritage Commission has been bringing you “Know Your Town.” But we haven’t talked about us, so this month the topic is “Know Your Heritage Commission.” When many hear the words “heritage” or “historic preservation” in their hometowns — rather than appealing vacation…

 Despite other lakes in the Upper Valley region, the sailors of Dartmouth college chose Mascoma Lake as their home.  Since the 1930s, the team’s sails have been a familiar site on the lake.  After almost 75 years, the landmark white building with green doors of the Dartmouth…

The following is taken from a history of Livingstone Lodge, written by the son of Alfred Livingstone for the current owners.“Around 1997, in order to conform to the 911 emergency call system, the town of Enfield renamed Old Shaker Hill Road Livingstone Lodge Road. The new name remembered a once…

For a quiet town in New Hampshire, Enfield’s urban development has been surprisingly dynamic. Since the area was first divided and transferred under British rule, Enfield has seen its centers of population, commerce and names change several times. Smaller Enfield Center was once a busier…

Like several other things in our town, Enfield’s Main Street owes its development to the Shakers and their dynamic leader Caleb Dyer. In 1847 Dyer convinced the Great Northern Railroad to change its plan for its route between Concord and White River Junction. Instead of following the western…

Of course, the most important street or road in our town is Route 4A, the true main artery that gave life to Enfield.One of the most important spurs to the development of the United States as a nation in the late 1700s was the creation of privately-financed transport networks. Shareholder…

In 1923, forty years had passed since the Shakers first permitted the construction of a simple camp on Mascoma Lake on what is now known as Point Comfort. Dozens of other camps and families spread from there around the eastern and southern shore of the lake until there was a community of regular…

So far, we have talked about Enfield streets and roads connected to the town’s industrial and agricultural past. Now, let’s talk about one connected to the town’s recreational past — and present; Shaker Boulevard, which serves the eastern and southern shores of Mascoma Lake. Artifacts…

Like many things in the history of Enfield, the name of Shaker Hill Road is neither as simple nor obvious as it seems at first sight. It does climb the hill whose name reflects the fact that it was where Enfield’s first Shakers congregated in the 1780s.However, the Shakers moved from that area…

The second of the three buildings in the proposed Enfield Center Triangle Historic District is the Town House (also called the “Town Hall”). This handsome Greek-revival building on the east side of Route 4A owes its existence to the Toleration Act of 1819. Because the act mandated the separation…

In the 1830s, three religious denominations in the Enfield Center community had the desire but not the finances to erect a church for their congregations. So, they joined together to raise funds for a new, shared building, which would be financed by selling pews. In this manner they raised $2,…

Many thanks to John Carr who researched and wrote this edition of “Know Your Town”.Wells Street is in the residential area located above Enfield’s main street and the original Northern Railroad corridor that follows the Mascoma River. The Wells Street neighborhood was developed near the…

Enfield’s 2022 town meeting is April 30th. With one of the most important items to vote on being “Library Whitney Hall renovation” (Article 7), it seems like a good occasion to provide a little historic background. As the home of the library and the town offices, the Library Memorial building…

Water has been the heart of human activity in Enfield since Native American Sokoki fished from camps at the head of Mascoma Lake. Enfield’s lakes, ponds and rivers provided water to drink, food to eat, and power for making things. Every day, the waters of Enfield bring relaxation and beauty to…