The Pierce Manse is a historic house museum located in Concord, New Hampshire. It was the home of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, who lived there from 1842 to 1848, [1] not long before his presidency.
The Pierce Manse is a historic house museum located in Concord, New Hampshire. It was the home of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, who lived there from 1842 to 1848, [1] not long before his presidency.
Franklin Pierce and his wife Jane Pierce moved here after she persuaded him to resign his seat in the United States Senate and leave Washington, D.C. [2] They owned the home from 1842 to 1848. [3] Pierce resumed his law practice and also served as district attorney and chairman of the Democratic Party. [4] During this time, Pierce advocated on behalf of James K. Polk's campaign for the presidency. Polk appointed Pierce U.S. Attorney for the State of New Hampshire as a reward in 1845. [5]
In May 1845, Pierce took a trip away from home to visit his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sophia Peabody, who were then living in The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, along with their Bowdoin College friend Horatio Bridge. Peabody recalled the meeting fondly and recorded her first impression of Pierce as "loveliness and truth of character and natural refinement." [6] In 1846, Polk offered Pierce the United States Attorney General position, which Pierce declined on account of his wife's health. [5] That year, with the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, Pierce enlisted as a private and was soon promoted to brigadier general. After an accident resulted in injury during the Battle of Contreras, he resigned from the Army by 1848. [4]
In 1971 the building was threatened with demolition as part of an urban renewal project. Locals created the "Pierce Brigade", an organization to raise funds to purchase and save the home. [3] Due to their efforts, the building was moved from Montgomery Street in Concord to its present location at 14 Horseshoe Pond Lane [7] (in 1971 known as Penacook Street). It was opened to the public in 1974. [5]
The home is available for guided tours from mid-June to October. It continues to be operated by the Pierce Brigade.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
John Parker Hale was an American politician and lawyer from New Hampshire. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and in the United States Senate from 1847 to 1853 and again from 1855 to 1865. He began his Congressional career as a Democrat, but helped establish the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and eventually joined the Republican Party.
Jane Means Pierce was the wife of Franklin Pierce and the first lady of the United States from 1853 to 1857. She married Franklin Pierce, then a Congressman, in 1834 despite her family's misgivings. She refused to live in Washington, D.C., and in 1842, she convinced her husband to retire from politics. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination without her knowledge in 1852 and was elected president later that year. Their only surviving son, Benjamin, was killed in a train accident prior to Franklin's inauguration, sending Jane into a deep depression that would afflict her for the rest of her life. Pierce was reclusive in her role as first lady, spending the first two years of her husband's presidency in a period of mourning for her son. Her duties at this time were often fulfilled by Abby Kent-Means. After the conclusion of Franklin's presidency they traveled abroad for two years before settling in Massachusetts. Pierce died of tuberculosis in 1863.
Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, also known as Mother Mary Alphonsa, was an American writer and religious leader. She was a Catholic religious sister, social worker, and foundress of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne.
Sophia Amelia Hawthorne was an American painter and illustrator as well as the wife of author Nathaniel Hawthorne. She also published her journals and various articles.
Mosses from an Old Manse is a short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846.
William Davis Ticknor I was an American publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and a founder of the publishing house Ticknor and Fields.
The Old Manse is a historic manse in Concord, Massachusetts, United States, notable for its literary associations. It is open to the public as a nonprofit museum owned and operated by the Trustees of Reservations. The house is located on Monument Street, with the Concord River just behind it. The property neighbors the North Bridge, a part of Minute Man National Historical Park.
The Wayside is a historic house in Concord, Massachusetts. The earliest part of the home may date to 1717. Later it successively became the home of the young Louisa May Alcott and her family, who named it Hillside, author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family, and children's writer Margaret Sidney. It became the first site with literary associations acquired by the National Park Service and is now open to the public as part of Minute Man National Historical Park.
Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first volume was published in the spring of 1837 and the second in 1842. The stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name.
David Lawrence Morril was an American politician, attorney, physician and minister. He served as a U.S. Senator for New Hampshire from 1817 to 1823, and was the tenth governor of New Hampshire, serving from 1824 until 1827.
Julian Hawthorne was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mysteries and detective fiction, essays, travel books, biographies, and histories.
The Franklin Pierce Homestead is a historic house museum and state park located in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. It was the childhood home of the fourteenth president of the United States, Franklin Pierce.
The presidency of Franklin Pierce began on March 4, 1853, when Franklin Pierce was inaugurated, and ended on March 4, 1857. Pierce, a Democrat from New Hampshire, took office as the 14th United States president after routing Whig Party nominee Winfield Scott in the 1852 presidential election. Seen by fellow Democrats as pleasant and accommodating to all the party's factions, Pierce, then a little-known politician, won the presidential nomination on the 49th ballot of the 1852 Democratic National Convention. His hopes for reelection ended after losing the Democratic nomination at the 1856 Democratic National Convention.
Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Conflict between North and South continued after Pierce's presidency, and, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern states seceded, resulting in the American Civil War.
Franklin Pierce House may refer to a home of Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States:
Anson Southard Marshall was an American attorney and politician who served as the United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire.
The Concord Historic District encompasses the least altered portion of the historic heart of Concord, New Hampshire. The 25-acre (10 ha) district, located just north of the modern commercial and civic heart of the city, includes the city's oldest surviving house, the site of its first religious meetinghouse, and the Pierce Manse, a historic house museum that was home to President Franklin Pierce during his rise to national prominence. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Franklin Pierce House was a historic house at 52 South Main Street in Concord, New Hampshire, United States. Built in 1852, it was a significant local example of Second Empire architecture, and was one of two surviving Concord homes of President Franklin Pierce at the time of its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Pierce died in the house in 1869. It was destroyed by fire on September 17, 1981.
Pemigewasset House was a grand hotel in Plymouth, New Hampshire. It began as a tavern in 1800. In 1841 Denison Burnam turned it into Pemigewasset House, and it tripled in size by 1859 with a grand dining room and railroad depot among the additions. A fire destroyed it in 1862, and a new four-story hotel was constructed on the site. It was served by the Boston, Concord, & Maine Railroad with its own depot. Guests included President Franklin Pierce, a regular, and Nathaniel Hawthorne who died at the hotel. It, too, was destroyed by fire in 1909.
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