They Paved Paradise And Made It A ...

This morning, I drove past the pile of rubble on North Main Street that used to house the .

I felt an ineffable sense of sadness and loss. I also began to wonder whether it was time to purchase a rocking chair and sit out on the porch rocking back and forth while sharing stories about a Concord that is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Don’t get me wrong, I recognize the value and importance of progress and change. After all, as a youngster I pushed my way into the office of then Concord Mayor Charles Davie telling him that Concord needed a subway system. I even offered to help with the digging. However, the gradual dismantling of so many of the buildings that have helped to give Concord its character and charm, is unsettling to anyone who has spent a half century or more in the city.

As a young child, we frequently had visitors from out of state – some coming from as far away as Las Vegas and Texas. To a person they acclaimed the beauty and uniqueness of the City as well as the plethora of lovely buildings – from businesses to homes and schools.

Even today, you can take a stroll down Main Street and look only at the tops of buildings and see some stunning architecture that has withstood the test of time.

I was only 7 or 8 when the railroad station was torn down, but from my reaction you’d have thought they were tearing down the house I lived in. The station represented something very special and there was an energy and excitement that seemed intoxicating each time we visited it.

The beautiful Rumford Coffee House on North Main Street was torn down, only to be replaced by a so-called “modern” office building for IBM. later used the building and today it houses the State Employees’ Association. I don’t imagine that in years to come, should the building ever be torn down, that people will remember it with the same fondness that some of us recall the coffee house and its quiet elegance.

The Parker School sat on the site that is now home to the for the state of New Hampshire. It was another of Concord’s very distinctive and lovely places of learning, each with its own unique design. When the beautiful Parker School was replaced with a squat bank building possessing little that was memorable, I really knew the times they were a changing.

The former Conn Theatre was, in the 1970s, still an imposing and solid building located on School Street. Although it housed the American Legion, it still exuded “theatre” and one could only imagine the thousands who’d been entertained within its walls. The Conn Theatre made way for a garage.

Longtime Concord residents have never had much of an affinity for parking garages. They’ve always preferred parking on the street when they go “downstreet” (the vernacular we always used) to shop.

The garage that hovers like an evil alien spacecraft, blocking out much of the light on Storrs Street, always reminds me of visiting Boston as a child and having to drive underneath the elevated train structures.

Although I only attended for one year, I miss it each time I drive past the new sprawling monolith that has taken its place.

While some changes have been good – I would imagine not too many miss Carleen’s Café – Angelo’s, which sat where the Holiday Inn now sits, had a wonderfully welcoming exterior and an interior with some of the best and most affordable food in town.

Fortunately some changes didn’t involve demolition, but were merely cosmetic in nature.

The whistle that regularly blew at 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. from the fire station on Warren Street, was a comforting sound. It also brought a huge sigh of relief and unrelenting giddiness when it would blow at 7 a.m. in the morning to signal that Mr. Atherton, the superintendent of Schools, had cancelled classes due to a snowstorm.

Whenever there was a fire in town, the whistle would blow a certain “code” and hundreds of residents would pull out their little cards to find out, based on the code, where the fire was located.

Tenney Fuels had huge speakers mounted on top of a building on Pleasant Street. Each day at 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m., they would chime the hour and then play two or three songs on the Carillon. When the wind blew just right, you could hear the bells at our home on Academy Street with amazing clarity.

The is a beautiful performing arts forum which the city is fortunate to have. It is now easily accessible for everyone as it should be. I miss, however, climbing what seemed to be an endless series of stairs to reach the lobby of the theatre. I always felt as Dorothy must have felt on her way to the Emerald City – a keen sense of anticipation as to what awaited me once I arrived.

A & W, Kenistons, crossing the and veering right to drive down the road to the Concord Drive-In – so many memories and so many changes.

Sometimes, I wonder whether the decision-makers truly understand Concord and why so many people stayed here once they settled.

There was a comfort and peace in being surrounded by history that was rich and people who didn’t feel the need to apologize for a lack of gleaming, modern edifices. You proudly wore your civic pride.