Alton Village

Situated 1.25 miles southeast of Alton Bay village (Lake Winnipesaukee) on New Hampshire 11 is the village of Alton, containing a diverse collection of high-style and vernacular architecture representing several building types and spanning nearly three quarters of a century. At the center of the village is Monument Square, not specifically planned as public space, but formed by the intersection of two major roads at an angle so acute that a large triangle was kept open for traffic flow and general use. It continues to function today as the visual and symbolic center of the community, with the Civil War Soldiers Monument (1897) and the War Memorial (1919; 1959) serving as primary focal points on islands in the middle. The structures surrounding the open space, though of different periods, styles, sizes, and materials, establish a sense of enclosure and coherence characteristic of a successful public square, in this case fortuitous but seemingly accidental.

The earliest building facing on Monument Square, the Cocheco House (1830), was erected to close the northwest end of the space with a distinguished symmetrical facade that accentuates the square’s southeast-facing axis. In near perfect harmony, two pitched-roof wings flank a central, two-story, five-bay, columned veranda, setting a high standard for the square’s later structures. Until 1914 the Cocheco House served as one of the most important hotels and taverns in the region, and in recent years accommodated the local American Legion post. Despite some minor modifications, it has retained its architectural integrity and remains a central visual element on the Square.

At the intersection of Main Street and Frank C. Gilman Highway (New Hampshire 140), facing the southwest end of the Cocheco House, is a second building of note, “The White Lodge,” believed to have been constructed about 1875 and the finest residence in Alton village. Displaying a Greek Revival temple form and plan, enlivened by Victorian eclectic embellishment, this structure is illustrative of the typically provocative domestic designs of the late nineteenth century. Attracting particular attention is the northeast gable facade, with its boxed cornice and sawn brackets set above a monumental, two-story portico consisting of four large, square, paneled columns with molded capitals. These columns screen an off-center front entry, the door flanked by recessed, full sidelights and topped by a recessed transom window and hoodmold. The rest of the house is similarly adorned. Attached to the rear and paralleling Gilman Highway is a complex of connected barns that served as a livery stable, and, in the early twentieth century, as a corkscrew factory by then owner Rockwell Clough.

Facing each other on the two long sides of Main Street and Monument Square are two rows of closely spaced buildings, all but one built in the nineteenth century. On the southwest side between Church Street and Gilman Highway are four architecturally nondescript but historically noteworthy buildings—the Dudley Barker store (before 1855); Morrell’s store (before 1874); the Wheeler family cape dwelling, built for Daniel C. Emery in 1838–1839; and the Harold S. Gilman Museum, a concrete block and brick Neoclassical edifice put up by the Town of Alton in 1974–1975. Opposite this row, extending toward Depot Street on the northeast side, is a group of four additional significant buildings: the James N. Jones House (c. 1841–1842), an expansive vernacular domestic structure; the J. Jones & Son general store (1855, etc.); the Cape Tobias Berry House (c. 1845, etc.); and the Alton Town Hall, a landmark late Victorian brick structure on the corner of Monument Square and Depot Street.

Designed in the Romanesque Revival style by architect A. T. Ramsdell of Dover, New Hampshire, and built by contractor G. H. Proctor and Son, the Town Hall was completed at a cost of just over $15,000 and was formally dedicated in May 1894. This two-and-one-half-story, rectangular, hip-roofed main block with an imposing, four-story, south corner tower is one of the most outstanding public buildings of its era in the Lakes Region. Still serving its original purposes, the Town Hall is entered by means of a recessed entry set behind a semicircular brick arch with stone inposts. The square stair and clock tower, the most conspicuous feature, projects slightly from the front and side walls and is protected by a pyramidal roof with flared eaves and an elaborate metal weathervane. Lighting the interior stairs are staggered, narrow, one-over-one windows; the four clock faces are set within semicircular brick arches so typical of the style.

Removed from Monument Square on the southeast side of Church Street, 0.1 miles from Main Street, is the First Congregational Church (the Community Church of Alton since 1968), without question one of Belknap County’s finest and most sophisticated Greek Revival ecclesiastical structures. Erected in 1853–1854, this strikingly well-proportioned and preserved wooden edifice displays nicely articulated facades and a three-stage, central bell tower virtually unaltered since the time of construction. The church follows the traditional schema with a symmetrical, gable-roofed main block, the gable end, dominated by the tower, serving as the principal facade. The coherence, monumentality, and dignity of building is emphasized by the simple geometric forms and solids of its composition, and the pronounced Greek Revival ornament consists of tall, paneled corner pilasters and pillars, heavy box cornices, and peaked molded window and door headings. The interior, the original appearance of which is undocumented, has been subjected to some remodeling, but contains attractive spaces with classical detail, particularly the impressive, spacious sanctuary.

On the southeast side of Main Street, roughly a hundred yards from the Church Street intersection, is the second of Alton village’s nineteenth-century religious edifices, the Second Free Baptist Church. Also built in 1853–1854, this less imposing, nonetheless visually appealing structure is a meritorious though restrained example of the Italianate style, and the only early expression of this style in Belknap County. Minimally altered since its construction, this equally well-preserved church has served religious purposes for its entire history. With the same general form and floor plan configuration as the First Congregational Church, the Baptist Church is distinguished by the simple geometric solids of its form and the large scale of its major elements. Drawing primary notice is the tall, single-stage, flush-boarded, front gable end bell tower surmounted by a square, pyramidal spire and possessing tall, peaked hood louvers, and a box cornice with a crenelated parapet, moldings, a deep frieze, and heavy curvilinear sawn brackets. Appended to the rear of the building is a chapel wing (1891) along with a small organ addition (1875).