Carpenter Memorial Library Frieze - Manchester, NH
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 42° 59.535 W 071° 27.556
19T E 299519 N 4762889
This example of classic style architecture was designed by Edward Tilton and erected in 1914. It is the earliest of four early 20th century buildings in the Victory Park Historic District. The frieze above the door represents an owl.
Waymark Code: WME13A
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 03/19/2012
Views: 3
Carpenter Memorial Library
Victory Park Historic District
Manchester, New Hampshire
The frieze above the main door (no longer used) consists of owl just above the door, the name plate above that inscribed "Carpenter Memorial Library, flanked by two relief panels of a shield with a torch on each side, and scroll work.
The VICTORY PARK Historic District comprises 55 acres. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 due to the significance of the social and architectural history of the park and the buildings in its vicinity.
The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company laid out the streets in this part of the city in 1838. This park, originally called Concord Common, was the first of six parks deeded to the city by the Amoskeag for the benefit of its citizens. The park was originally twice this size, extending one more block to the west. At different times the park was used as a playground for children, as the site of an early farmers’smarket, and at one time it was divided up into garden plots for the neighbors to use.
The park was renamed Victory Park in 1929 as a memorial to the allied victory in World War I.
The "Carpenter Memorial Library" at 405 Pine St., on the east side of the park, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 as part of the Victory Park Historic District, with the following description, in part:
"The first of the institutional buildings built fronting Victory Park (then Concord Common) and setting the stage for a future
civic center was the Carpenter Memorial Library, made possible by the generosity of Frank P. Carpenter in memory of his
wife. Constructed in 1914, the Carpenter Memorial Library is a two story structure faced with rusticated white Vermont
marble blocks which conceal reinforced concrete floors and roof above a foundation of Concord granite. The building was
designed in a decoratively rich Beaux Arts or Italian Renaissance style according to designs by Edward Tilton."