April - 2017

Granite State of Mind, #89: Moody Point, Newmarket

Joe Pace

Apr 29, 2017

Granite State of Mind, #89: Moody Point, Newmarket

At the western edge of Great Bay, where the Squamscott River arrives from Exeter and the Lamprey from Newmarket, across the water from Stratham and Greenland, rests a spit of land called Moody Point. In the late 1980s the Cheney empire began developing the wooded 35-acre promontory with just over a hundred high-end condominiums and single family homes. The developers did a remarkable job ensuring that the construction folded effectively into the natural setting, preserving wo

Granite State of Mind, #88: The Townlyne Grill, Exeter

Joe Pace

Apr 28, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #88: The Townlyne Grill, Exeter

The building used to be called the Studio Restaurant (and, rumor has it, once sheltered a drug house). That sordid and likely apocryphal bit of mythology aside, 52 Hampton Road reached its highest and best use as The Townlyne Grill, the classy and yet casual eatery established and operated by Exeter fixture Chris Moutis. Chris was a true townie, and his restaurant reflected his love (sometimes acerbic but always loyal) to his village. The Townlyne bar was a welcoming place fo

Granite State of Mind, #87: The Isles of Shoals, Rye

Joe Pace

Apr 27, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #87: The Isles of Shoals, Rye

Here's a dirty little secret: I've never been to the Isles of Shoals. I love the ocean, love sailing ships and history, and yet I've never ventured the six miles offshore to the archipelago of islands and ledges, though I've certainly gazed wistfully at it enough times from the beaches in Rye and Hampton. When we get back it's high on my priority list of places to visit. It's a storied part of New Hampshire geography, a fishing mecca for indigenous populations and later Briti

Granite State of Mind, #86: "Winterfell", Milton

Joe Pace

Apr 26, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #86: "Winterfell", Milton

Just North of Rochester, straddling the Spaulding Turnpike, sits Milton, NH, a onetime manufacturing center along the Salmon Falls River. It's got the New Hampshire Farm Museum, the brilliantly named Mi-Te-Jo Campground, and the Three Ponds. Most importantly, though, it also has the house my brother Al's family owned and lived in for many years before their travels led them to Vermont and Connecticut. Named Winterfell after the stronghold of the Starks long before most people

Granite State of Mind, #85: Whittemore Center Arena, University of New Hampshire, Durham

Joe Pace

Apr 25, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #85: Whittemore Center Arena, University of New Hampshire, Durham

When I arrived at the University of New Hampshire as a freshman in fall 1993, the Wildcat hockey teams played in Lively Snively Arena, a classic old barn, a cramped wooden hangar with arrows in the ceiling that we could make shake from top to bottom when we got rolling. That season was the last in the old digs; I can remember playing in one of the last broomball games on the small ice surface there, lending a hand to the bull gang laying the floor for the Fishbone/Queen Latif

Granite State of Mind, #84: Downeaster Train Station, Exeter

Joe Pace

Apr 24, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #84: Downeaster Train Station, Exeter

The story of how passenger rail service returned to the Boston to Portland line is a long one, and I won't share it all here. Let's just say that many people labored for many years to reconcile Amtrak with the private track owners and the municipalities along the restored route. I make no claims to any great role in that sprawling epic, but I may have the singular distinction of casting a vote to help authorize two of the stations in New Hampshire. Let me explain...no, as Ini

Granite State of Mind, #83: Dinnerhorn & Bratskellar Pub, Portsmouth

Joe Pace

Apr 23, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #83: Dinnerhorn & Bratskellar Pub, Portsmouth

The Sagamore Creek springs from the earth behind Peverly Hill and Banfield Roads in Portsmouth, and wends its way east past the Mirona Road commercial development, under Lafayette Road and Route 1A to join the greater Piscataqua River and later the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way it flows past (and sometimes through the parking lot of) the Dinnerhorn & Bratskellar Restaurant. A seacoast fixture since the Kamakas family opened it as a drive-in burger and fried seafood joint in 1

Granite State of Mind, #82: Brickyard Park, Exeter

Joe Pace

Apr 22, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #82: Brickyard Park, Exeter

A long day at the diamond with the boys yesterday reminded me forcefully of my own early experiences coaching youth baseball, more than fifteen years ago for the Exeter Rec. My nephew Al Pace was seven or eight or nine or whatever he was, playing coach-pitch. I worked with one of the teams (co-coaching with Jen, I think) - the Cardinals one year, the Red Sox another. It was pretty rudimentary stuff - a lot of these kids were emulating Michael Jackson (you know, wearing one gl

Granite State of Mind, #81: Mount Washington Hotel, Carroll

Joe Pace

Apr 21, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #81: Mount Washington Hotel, Carroll

Built in 1902, the Mount Washington Hotel is the granddaddy of the grand hotels that once dotted the New Hampshire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. New Hampshire was a destination for the idle wealthy then, and there were plush hotels throughout the state (like the Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle), but up north was the heart of things. Skiers and vacationers seeking to exchange the din of the city for the serenity of the mountains came by the trainful, from Boston and

Granite State of Mind, #80: Kingston 1686 House, Kingston

Joe Pace

Apr 20, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #80: Kingston 1686 House, Kingston

Talking about senior prom the other day got me thinking about...well, about junior prom. 25 years ago next month, we decked out the Talbot Gym in black plastic trash bags and white Christmas lights, and somehow a bridge and carriage for the grand promenade and photos. To this day, I don't know how Amy Kuegel MacDougall and her dad pulled it off. It was a legendary feat of event planning that she probably regrets to this day, with her lifetime appointment as logistics queen fo

Granite State of Mind, #79: The Powder House, Exeter

Joe Pace

Apr 19, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #79: The Powder House, Exeter

The first shots fired in the American Revolution weren't at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. They happened four months earlier, in New Hampshire. On December 14, 1774, John Langdon of Portsmouth led a group of rebels across the Piscataqua River to the British-held Fort William and Mary on New Castle Island and braved cannon fire to seize a hundred barrels of gunpowder from the small royal garrison and haul down the British ensign. This act of patriotic treason was in r

Granite State of Mind, #78: The Connie Bean Center, Portsmouth

Joe Pace

Apr 18, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #78: The Connie Bean Center, Portsmouth

It was the fall of 1997. I had graduated from UNH in the spring, and was working for the Greater Seacoast United Way when one of the most odd sequences in my life began to unfold (and believe me, that's saying something). Claudia Terlizzi Chapel and her then-husband John were guests at my first wedding to then-wife Jen Strickland Cyr. (Everybody should have a then-spouse. Except you, Sarah Pace. Don't get any ideas). Anyway, John was serving on the Board of Directors at Balle

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