The odd, the fun and the unexpected in Concord, NH
Who knew!?
#1 The world’s longest mini-golf hole, a go-kart track to race on and Upchuck ice cream - get it at all Chuckster’s a family-oriented seasonal park with outdoor activities such as mini-golf, go-karts, batting cages & a climbing wall. Minutes from Concord. And, yes hole 13 is the longest miniature golf hole anywhere: 201 feet of fun and anticipation, with two different ways to get a hole in one
#2 Imagine riding the rails in a pedal-powered rail car?! Scenic RailRiders is a pedal powered Scenic Railroad in Concord. Take Rail-Bike tour on the last remaining section of the Northern Railroad track built in 1846. The route will take you through woods, farm lands and along the Merrimack River. The trip includes a 2.4 mile round-trip southern leg and a 4 mile round trip northern leg. They have two turn-around points where you rest and enjoy the scenery along the Merrimack River.
#3 The Concord Quarries are a legacy of the Swenson family mined Rattlesnake Hill, a small rise that looms over Concord near the state prison. Since 1883, Swenson Granite has been used to build the State House, Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Pentagon. Today, the old the quarries are an popular spot for swimmers, with big jumps into cool water
#4 A 92-foot-tall Mercury-Redstone rocket rises above I93 in Concord. It looks real, but it is a replica, it was put up in 2009 at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center and is just like the one that launched Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom into space. The Discovery Center was named after two New Hampshire natives famous for space travel: Alan Shepard and Christa McAuliffe, who was chosen to be the first teacher in space but died in the Challenger explosion.
#5 With its grand 19th century Victorian façade and sophisticated interiors, the Centennial Hotel is a real landmark. What is today an intimate and charming luxury boutique lodging first opened in 1876 as the Centennial Home — a group home founded by Concord locals to give less-fortunate elderly people a safe, comfortable place to live, the very first of its kind in New Hampshire. But in the basement, in the midst of the fine meeting rooms - is a big vault that was a holding vault, a place in where coffins could be stored until burial plans could be made. Today, it is an open store room, but it once served a very different purpose.
#6 The Concord Historic District is the 25-acre district, located just north of the modern civic district, and includes the city's oldest surviving house, the site of its first religious meetinghouse, and the Pierce Manse. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The original footprint of Concord was laid out back in 1726 above the floodplains of the Merrimack River. The oldest surviving home is that of Rev. Timothy Walker, and was built in 1735. Residential structures in the district represent the variety of architecture from the 19th century, including the fine Greek Revival Pierce Manse, a Victorian Gothic cottage at 278 North Main St., and the late Gothic brick house at 266 North Main St. There are only a few buildings in the district built after 1900, including the Lutheran church. Nearby is the Old North Cemetery, established in 1730, the oldest cemetery in the central New Hampshire.
#7 Concord’s Sunset League is the oldest post-dinner amateur baseball club in the US. After a baseball field was built at White Park in or about 1900, Concord’s neighborhood formed teams and played one another on the field. The first game was played on June 22, 1909, with the White Parks beating the Old Timers by 14-0. Games ran from 6:15 p.m. to sunset.
#8 The 1883 Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship – or simply Black Ice – is the marquee event in Concord that many look forward to all year. The tournament is a tribute to the first-ever organized pond hockey game played in the US, which took place at St. Paul’s School on Nov. 17, 1883. The tournament has expanded in size every year.
#9 Concord is the location of the first Tio Juan’s Margaritas. The restaurant is built in the old city Police Station (from 1890 to 1975) and many of the tables are set within the actual cells with bars. Some say the building is haunted and that a ghost of a despondent former resident roams the lower cells. Order a beer and find out!
Now what did I miss?
The odd, the fun and the unexpected in Concord, NH
