Francestown, Fifty Years of Growth and Change, 1970-2020

By Kevin Pobst

The New Hampshire village of Francestown, was settled and incorporated before the Revolutionary War. Its height of population and commercial activity was before the Civil War during the New England sheep boom and before the railroad steered traffic away from the town's location on the 2nd New Hampshire Turnpike. By the early twentieth century the picturesque settlement was home to a few hundred full-time residents making their living in farming, forestry and trades. Well-off people from Boston and other cities "discovered" the town as a summer haven. They rehabilitated colonial-era homes on Main Street or built summer cottages on classic New England ponds. A ski area and golf course were built in the rolling, forested hills. When the town celebrated its Bicentennial in 1972, it was on the threshold of a period of rapid, sustained change. Young families from metropolitan areas, retirees, and commuters moved in, tripling the population. They brought with them different value systems and connections to national movements of environmentalism, conservation, and suburbanization. This book tells the story of the town's reaction to growth and how it addressed change. In many ways, Francestown's story is a microcosm of America's during the fifty years spanning the final decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BMZP8VFC
• ISBN13: 9798353990949
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"