Manchester's West Side

[FrankLloydMike]

I didn't think it was possible, but it seems that someone has come up with an even worse idea than putting a liquor store on the Granite Landing site (from today's Union Leader):

THE CITY HAS a potential buyer for the land once slated for a liquor store. Andrade Management Group of Manchester made a $550,000 offer to buy the parcel at the corner of Granite and Second streets, next to the on-ramp to Interstate 293. The group plans to build a Dunkin’ Donuts with a drive-through window on the site.

The site was once eyed for a state liquor store, but the New Hampshire Liquor Commission backed away from the plans after soil contamination was found on the property.

 

[Patrick]

I didn't think it was possible, but it seems that someone has come up with an even worse idea than putting a liquor store on the Granite Landing site (from today's Union Leader):

What's the context here, for an out of towner?

 

[FrankLloydMike]

What's the context here, for an out of towner?

The urban context is an open piece of land at the southeast corner ofGranite & Second Streets near Granite Square and at the Exit 5 off-ramp gateway to downtown. It's a hugely important piece of land, both because of its prominence as a gateway and marker to downtown, and for its potential to extend the vibrancy and density of downtown to the long-neglected, but formerly beautiful Granite Square neighborhood center.

The area surrounding the Granite Landing property is a dense, formerly German neighborhood, and one of the few urban areas that is not on a grid in Manchester. While it's seen better days economically and has plenty of absentee landlords these days, it is home to several parks, including the new dog park for the city and a rail-trail that connects to downtown, and the only branch library in the city. NeighborWorks also renovated and restored several apartments and houses nearby recently, so it's poised for a resurgence if the city promotes urban growth and infill development there.

The site in question has been empty since these buildings were razed in the 1970s or 1980s to make way for the southern half of the off-ramp. The beige building in the background still stands at the southeast corner of Second & School St:

The northern side of the intersection--the actual "Granite Landing" site referred to on the Manchester Economic Development Office (MEDO)'s website was cleared in the last several years to complete the northern half of the off-ramp. It was previously a small parking lot for nearby West High School and a few private buildings.

The political context is that MEDO has had an RFP seeking an "urban-scale, commercial office, retail or mixed-use development" project for the parking lots on the north side of Granite Street for over a year. At some point over the summer, the state and Mayor Gatsas were discussing locating a suburban-scale, auto-dominated state liquor store on the Manchester Development Corporation (MDC, a non-profit, quasi-municipal-owned development corp)--owned parcel south of Granite St. For legal reasons, MEDO needed to exchange their property with the city-owned property to the north in order to lease it to the state. I'm not sure if the exchange ever went through, but the a few months ago the state decided against locating a liquor store because of some environment mitigation work that would need to be done on the site.

Until the 1980s, this elegant building stood at the southeast corner of Granite and Main Streets. While this isn't the site in question, MEDO's goal of getting urban-scaled development on the open parcels along Granite Street would lead to the sort of vibrancy seen in this photo; a Dunkin Donuts will lead to more gas stations, parking lots and absentee landlords in the neighborhood:

 

[MonopolyBag]

There is literally a Dunkin Donuts 300 feet away, about a 1 minute walk away.

I really do not think a Dunkin Donuts is needed there. And man, you are right about it being worse than the liquor store. At least that people had to get out of their cars.

 

[FrankLloydMike]

A couple interesting articles about the West Side in the Union Leader today. The first deals with the history of the Amoskeag neighborhood, which was the original center of industry in the city, and the other with an expansion of Manchester Community College just north of Amoskeag Village.

Here are some excerpts from the article about the weekly Looking Back column, "During the 1830s, Manchester’s West Side was the focus," by Aurore Eaton, the executive director of the Manchester Historic Association:

In the early 1830s the [Amoskeag Manufacturing Company] set about acquiring property on the West Side. The idea was to accumulate enough acreage to accommodate new factories, but also to encourage a city to grow up around the expanded millyard. The corporation quickly bought up over 700 acres of land adjacent to Amoskeag Village. The stockholders envisioned that the little village would someday, according to Browne be “the heart of a large town, certain to follow the development of their resources.” The excess land was being held in anticipation, in Browne’s words of “the coming metropolis.”

We know today that the West Side did not become a metropo-lis, so what happened to change the course of events? The company’s engineers surveyed the terrain on both sides of the river, and then advised the owners to throw away their plans for expanding Amoskeag Village and to set their sights instead on the East Side. The riverbank there was straighter, and the landscape wasn’t impeded by hills and valleys as it was on the West Side. The topography on the East Side was much better suited for the building of canals and mill buildings, and for the creation of a new city to support the industrial operations. So, the company began buying up the scattered farms of the old established Manchester families on the East Side — including the Clarks, Kidders, Stevens, Rowells, Starks, Gambles, Halls and Barretts. By the end of 1834 the company owned nearly all the properties in that area, from just above Amoskeag Falls to about the location of the current Granite Street Bridge.

In 1836 the old wooden dams at Samuel Blodget’s former mill site on the east bank of the river, and the Amoskeag Village dam were repaired.

These “wing” dams extended only part way into the river. To fully take advantage of the water power at Amoskeag Falls, the company needed to build a dam across the entire river. This stone dam was started in 1837 and completed in 1840. A basin for controlling the water flow into the future waterpower canals was constructed on the site of the former Blodget mill pond. A wooden gate house was built at the top of the basin, containing the technology needed to manage the water in the canal system.

The company constructed a waterpower canal leading out of the basin. This “Upper Canal” was 10 feet deep, and ran parallel to the river. It was 75 feet wide at its start, and narrowed to 50 feet for the remainder of its 5,480 foot course. As described by historian Browne, “this passage was walled with stones laid in the most substantial manner.”

Today, the basin is still intact as well as two later gate houses.

These can be seen at the north end of the Amoskeag Millyard, and are owned by Public Service of New Hampshire. The Upper Canal is buried beneath the railroad tracks that run west of Canal Street.

The site of the original Amoskeag Village is roughly where the La Quinta hotel was recently renovated and reopened. The village has been interrupted by I-293 for a long time and is now mostly an area to pass through before getting to downtown, but it's clear from this photo from the hotel that the view of downtown and the power of the Amoskeag Falls is pretty unbeatable.

The building in the foreground there is the PSNH headquarters, and the remnant of the Upper Canal basin is just out of view to the left. You can see the hotel, PSNH, falls and basin in the map here. It's pretty common in the summer to see experienced kayakers in the river south of the falls, but if the basin was cleaned up a bit, I think it could easily become a more approachable recreational attraction in the city.

And here are some excerpts from the article about the community college expansion:

Manchester Community College to build student center
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI

MANCHESTER — Manchester Community College will build its first-ever student center this year, a $6 million project, and is launching a multimillion-dollar upgrade of its welding, computer science and automotive programs.

Manchester Community College, which has undergone eight incarnations since its founding in 1945 as the State Trade School Manchester on Webster Street — is among seven schools in the community college system sharing $25 million in capital improvement funds approved by the Legislature for the biennium that ends June 30, 2013, according to MCC President Susan D. Huard.

The Manchester campus received $9.5 million and will spend $6 million of it on the new student center and $3.5 million on academic improvements.

The $6 million student center would be a first for the college that opened at its current site in October, 1966, school officials said.

As for the student center, said Huard, “The students have been asking about a student center for a long time.”

MCC will be the third community college after Nashua and New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord to get a student center.

The 28,000-square-foot center will replace an existing wing that now houses a cafeteria and lounge. It will include a renovated cafeteria and some offices where student organizations can meet, Huard said.

It also will feature the first assembly space large enough to host public and academic events, such as the annual pinning ceremony that is a tradition for the school's nursing students graduates, school officials said. Currently, nursing students must pay to rent outside space to hold the event. The assembly space also can double as a gymnasium, college officials said.

The new wing's glass-and-steel facade will face Interstate 293 and connect the upper floors of two sections of the school. It should be complete by next March.

The student center will also have a renovated, expanded student-run fitness center.

I wonder if the original trade school was located in the building that now houses the Easter Seals in the North End? The current campus is kind of on the edge of town, and while I think it would be nicer if the college was better integrated into a neighborhood, I'll be interested to see how the new student center looks from I-293. I'm hoping they'll post renderings on this blog sometime in the future.