10 minute read
Life in the Slow Lane
Life in the Slow Lane
Keene has cultivated its small-town vibe since the beginning
By Kara McGrath
No matter from which direction you enter Main Street in Keene, the big, white church at the northern tip is unmistakable. The landmark has loomed over Central Square since the 1780s, acting as a nearly unchanged supervisor over multiple renovations of the large roundabout and shop-lined, four-lane street that makes up this city’s highly walkable downtown.
Soon, the church will be witness to another makeover: City councilors have approved a $14 million project to overhaul the sewer and water systems while adding bike lanes and expanding the central traffic circle, all slated to begin in 2025. The plan, which is not yet finalized, has created a rift between people who wish to keep the square as it is and those who see value in the proposed changes.
There has been a mission to preserve Keene’s history while moving forward as the times demand since at least 1736, when citizens at a town meeting voted to double the width of what Alan Rumrill, executive director of the Historical Society of Cheshire County, calls “our wonderful, wide Main Street.”
Back then, Keene wasn’t so unique. “In the late 1700s and early 1800s, it was simply one of several communities in this region of southwest New Hampshire that had about the same population size, same sorts of activities going on,” Rumrill says. Then the trains came to town.
When the railroad opened to Keene in May 1848, Rumrill says 5,000 people showed up to celebrate the prosperity they knew the trains would bring. And prosperity came quickly. “As soon as the railroad opened, manufacturers began to build factories and warehouses right along the tracks to take advantage of this new, faster and inexpensive form of transportation for their products,” Rumrill says. The population ballooned from 2,600 people in 1840 to 13,000 in 1930.
“Keene hasn’t had long extended periods of downturn, partially because of the diversity of industry and manufacturing here,” Rumrill says. In 1900, the city called itself the porch chair capital of the United States due to the million porch rockers produced here every year, but a lengthy article on Keene’s official government website that seemingly documents every business in Keene since its inception through the 1960s also notes successful textile mills, clockmakers, pharmacists, shoemakers, wigmakers, bookbinders, photographers and more.
When Steve and Cindy McGrath, two lifelong residents (who are also my parents), were growing up in Keene in the 1960s and 1970s, the four-lane Main Street was lined with movie theaters, big-box stores and a few restaurants. A strong sense of community had always flourished, though the gatherings, they both recall, happened primarily at home. “The house was always filled,” Steve says, noting that it wasn’t uncommon for 200 people to get together for no special occasion. “We weren’t ever given a chance to be isolated.”
Today, the town is home to just over 23,000 residents, and has continued to prosper despite no longer being a hub for rail traffic (the railroad shut down to passengers in 1958, then closed entirely in 1982). You won’t find a department store or chain hotel on Main Street; instead, those community gatherings happen at locally owned restaurants, coffee shops, breweries and specialty stores that also draw in tourists.
Eileen Sarson, a volunteer of Radically Rural and the recipient of a 2023 Extraordinary Women award from The Keene Sentinel, recalls a recent conversation with a woman whose boyfriend had to travel to northern Vermont; the woman asked to be dropped off in Keene on his way so she could spend the day shopping.
Karen Lyle, who owned and operated art-supply store Creative Encounters from 1985 to 2021, was one of the first women-owned businesses in town. Lyle was welcomed by the old-schoolers into the Keene Downtown Group, where she saw how businesses worked together, rather than competing, even if they were in similar industries. “They worked together, they planned together,” Lyle says. “And that’s what Keene does as a whole.”
This collaboration has continued, according to Ashley Nesbitt, who opened boutique fitness studio Everglow Wellness in 2019. “The city of Keene is very welcoming for new business. We have good resources here,” she says, emphasizing that all the businesses on Main Street are eager to support new entrepreneurs who join their ranks.
One of those resources — which Nesbitt says she used often during Everglow’s early days — is Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, which grew out of Hannah Grimes Marketplace. Mary Ann Kristiansen is the founder of both, and opened the Marketplace in 1997 after she realized she was able to sell her homemade soaps just about everywhere — New York City, Denmark, Japan — except locally. “I saw this beautiful, wonderful, amazing stuff made locally that really defined our region, and I felt like it just needed a market,” she says.
After almost a decade of offering a place for local creators to sell, Kristiansen decided to formalize the business advice she was often providing as well. The Center for Entrepreneurship started with what’s now called The Business Lab. “It’s currently a seven-week program with workshops and one-on-one meetings,” she says.
Now, the center has nine listings under the Programs header on its website, including Radically Rural, an annual conference that brings rural community leaders from around the country to Keene to share creative solutions to common problems.
The center also offers almost on-demand individual coaching to supplement the less frequently-hosted workshops. “If you needed financial help right now, or if you needed help with your social media right now, we might not have a workshop until who knows when,” Kristiansen says. “We just started getting people volunteering their time to do one-on-one coaching. That really met a need.”
It’s not uncommon to see that type of collaboration extend beyond the startup phase. When Brewbakers, a local coffee shop, moved into a bigger space, they named that space Nova Arts and opened it up to other small businesses — including a floral designer and record store — plus began hosting indie musicians for performances. Modestman, a brewery on Main Street, often hosts pop-ups by local food trucks. Everglow, Nesbitt says, was always intended to be a space that could host events beyond workout classes; for one recent example, the studio served as the “adult lounge” during this year’s Keene Pride Festival.
This collaboration between business owners creates positive experiences for consumers as well. “Keene has the infrastructure and services of a city, but the ability to create relationships that you would have in a small town,” Sarson says.
Steve, who celebrated his 50th work anniversary at the Tire Warehouse location on lower Main Street in 2023, recalls that his first managers always encouraged them to give back to the community. For instance, he got his pilot’s license in order to fly the company’s branded hot air balloon around town and at festivals, but this quickly became more than just a marketing stunt.
“With the hot air balloon, we offered a lot of community support,” he says, referring to the times he’d donate hot air balloon rides for local fundraisers or as an activity at a community event. “(People) recognized there was a commitment to support the community.”
When Keene Pumpkin Festival started in 1991, the organizers called on every business in town to help – and they happily chipped in, Steve recalls. While Pumpkin Fest — which brought thousands of visitors to Keene every year and set the 2013 world record for most lit jack-o-lanterns in one place (30,581) — is currently in a state of transition, there are many other community-run events on Main Street each year, and the nearby businesses support them all.
“If you really want to make a community (for your business), you have to go out into the community,” Nesbitt says simply.
Among those events, one of the longest running is Keene ArtWalk, which Lyle has been involved in since its inception in 1991. Every year, businesses donate their window display space to Monadnock Region artists for 10 days. “It was a way of connecting artists, community and business together,” Lyle says. It is, essentially, a free, 24-hour outdoor museum: You can peruse the art at any time of day simply by walking through downtown.
If shopping, dining out or large crowds aren’t exactly your scene, Keene also offers plenty of the great outdoors that New Hampshire is more typically associated with. “People now think of Keene as a place where there’s lots of green space and public space where people, visitors and residents, can escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and sort of recover in a natural landscape,” Rumrill says.
Again, this was all part of a long-term plan. “The Forestry Society wanted to keep (downtown) green and attractive beginning as early as the 1850s,” he says, noting also that many prominent community members, like George Wheelock, started donating land for parks around the same time. “Right downtown and in the outskirts of the city itself, but still within the city limits, there are thousands and thousands of acres of natural open space.”
Everyone I spoke to for this piece raved about the easily accessible lakes, mountains and hiking trails, including the old railroad routes, which have been converted into paved paths that run for miles through Keene and other nearby towns. As Steve puts it: “Where else can you go from a wildlife preserve to a liquor store in two minutes?”
The city isn’t perfect, of course. “Keene is such a great place to raise a family, but there aren’t enough opportunities for employment,” Cindy says, so people often leave for college and beyond if they’re in search of a more traditional career path.
(This is something I can attest to: I was only able to move back to this little hub of entertainment, food and culture from New York City because the media company I work for full time allowed me to go remote. Many of the friends I have here now are in the same boat.)
Housing, as with everywhere in the nation, feels expensive. There are tensions surrounding the town’s management of its unhoused community members, but also support for them, including Keene Mutual Aid, which was started in 2020 by then20-year-old Anna McGuiness.
But overall, it’s a good place to be. “It’s homey, it’s welcoming,” says Nesbitt. “It feels comfortable when you’re here,” Lyle says. “There’s a slower pace up here, and yet Keene’s not asleep.”
