by We squeezed in a visit to the New Hampshire State House in Concord while traveling between our cat-sitting gigs in Vermont and Massachusetts. This marks our 19th state capitol, which Doug is ranking here.
It was, in my opinion, a very weird tour. First the docent spent a long time showing us dioramas of battles that happened in other states, but which included men from New Hampshire. Then he spent 15 minutes explaining Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, which of course is in Pennsylvania. I was definitely wondering if we were actually going to see any of the state house on our tour.
But there’s honestly not much to the state house, so maybe he was trying to delay our disappointment. The House Gallery was quite plain compared to others we’ve seen. The Senate Gallery was small and also understated, but had four Barry Faulkner murals from 1942 that were quite nice.
The Greek Revival state house was built between 1816 and 1819 (cost: $82,000, or about $2 million today), though major additions enlarged it in 1864 and 1910. There are more than 200 paintings in the building, but they were mostly old white men we didn’t know, and not especially interesting.
The cover photo is of the 1891 Memorial Arch that commemorates those who served in the nation’s wars. It was “approved by Frederick Law Olmsted,” whatever that means.
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