603 NAVIGATOR / OUR TOWN
Originally a tavern built circa 1789, the Hancock Inn is full of history, including 19th-century murals and stencil art.
Historic Hancock Soak up some small-town charm
BY BARBARA RADCLIFFE ROGERS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY STILLMAN ROGERS
W
e love browsing through the original 1938 WPA Federal Writers’ Project guide to New Hampshire, a somewhat idiosyncratic encyclopedia of our home state, for the history and for the wonderful tidbits of local lore it shares. Case in point: “Right from Hancock on Stoddard Rd., is ‘Hooter’ Farm, 2.5 mi., where a former officer in the Imperial Guard of the Czar of Russia raises turkeys.’ Who knew? In 1938, Hancock was described as “an old-fashioned community,” where “it would not seem incongruous to see a stagecoach come down the highway and stop at the tavern as it did a century ago.” The tavern — now the Hancock Inn & Fox Tavern — is still the landmark in the village center, 16
nhmagazine.com | September 2021
with its wide porch and rockers facing Maine Street. A Concord Coach laden with travelers still wouldn’t look out of place in front of the inn. First settled in 1764, the town didn’t have enough population to incorporate until 1799, when it was named for John Hancock, who owned about 1,000 acres of land here. Difficult as it is to picture now, it became a manufacturing center, at one time producing nearly half the cotton made in the state. In the early 1800s, rifles were manufactured here, but by the end of the century more than 60 family farms were the economic base. The railroad came in 1888, and Hancock’s Elmwood Station was the crossing point of two lines, the Manchester & Keene
Railroad and the Peterborough & Hillsborough Railroad. This made it easier for farmers to get their produce to city markets, and it also brought the first tourists seeking fresh country air and cooling summer breezes. The rail lines were closed after the hurricane of 1936 washed out several segments of track, but the visitors kept coming, many buying summer homes. Several taverns served the carriage trade, and one of them, a four-chimney brick structure built in 1800, is now the Hancock Historical Society, housing a museum with antique furniture, household goods, textiles and a large tool collection. Another that served the carriage trade is The Hancock Inn, built circa 1789, making it the state’s oldest continiously operating inn. It opened a decade before the town was incorporated, providing meals and — unlike the others — accommodations to travelers. The inn passed in ownership to a state
