Concord, the capital of New Hampshire

A government on the move

Under royal rule, New Hampshire was governed from Portsmouth, where a two-story wooden statehouse built in 1758 housed the council, the assembly and the courts. When the Revolution began, the Revolutionary government moved inland to Exeter.

After 1784 the legislature had no fixed seat at all. It met most often at Exeter, Portsmouth, Concord and Hopkinton, and once each at Dover, Amherst, Charlestown and Hanover. The last sessions away from Concord were at Portsmouth in December 1805 and at Hopkinton in June 1806 and June 1807.

Settling in Concord

From 1808 the legislature met only in Concord, a centrally located town on the Merrimack River. No law ever formally fixed the seat of government there; the legislature simply kept adjourning to Concord. The move reflected political power shifting from the seacoast to the interior.

When the state decided to build a State House, Concord had competition. Hopkinton wanted it, and Salisbury offered $7,000, but Concord won, and the project was settled by 1816.

The State House

Stuart James Park designed and built the State House from Concord granite. Inmates of the state prison cut and dressed the stone, which kept costs down, and the building cost about $82,000. A gilded wooden eagle was raised to the top of the dome in 1818, and the legislature first met in the new building in 1819. Decades later the eagle was replaced with a weatherproof metal replica.

The State House has grown with the state. It was enlarged and remodeled in 1864 to 1866 and rebuilt inside after a 1909 bond act, and an annex begun in 1938 connects to it by an underground passage. Through all of that, both chambers kept their original rooms, and the State House is said to be the oldest capitol in the country where both houses of the legislature still meet in their original chambers.

Manchester’s offers

Manchester, now the state’s largest city, twice tried to lure the capital away, offering large sums in 1863 and again around 1909. Both times the legislature kept the capital in Concord and enlarged the existing building instead.

Visiting

The State House visitor center offers guided and self-guided tours. See the General Court’s visitor center page for times.