Laconia District Court
a.k.a. Laconia High School;Academy Street School
Academy Sq., Laconia, NHThe Laconia District Court is a fine example of Victorian school architecture and of the late Second Empire style. Although built under a tight budget, it exemplifies the monumentality and complexity expected in late nineteenth-century public buildings.
In 1886, the Laconia High School was housed in the old Gilford Academy, a building that was overcrowded and obsolete by current standards. As the lease for the Academy and its lot was soon to expire, the village district school board decided that it was time to act, and placed in the warrant for the March 26 district meeting an article--"To see what action the district will take in relation to a new building for the use of the High and Grammar Schools...". The meeting appointed a committee to study the question and adjourned until April 9. The study committee then reported that it had negotiated a new 99-year lease with the trustees of the Academy and recommended the construction of a new school on the Academy lot. The report was generally approved by the meeting, which instructed the committee to obtain more detailed plans within three weeks. On April 30, the committee presented preliminary plans and an estimate for a brick school building prepared by architect Edward Dow of Concord. "After a thorough discussion of the plan, it was voted to build substantially on the model proposed by the committee at an expense not to exceed $21,000." A building committee was elected and the district meeting finally adjourned.
In June, the old Academy was placed on rollers and moved a short distance to clear the site. By June 25, the building committee had "engaged as an architect Mr. F. N. Footman of Boston". The foundation was completed in July. But further work was held up when the committee realized that the appropriation was not sufficient to build the school according to plan and to meet an unexpected expense, a new sewer drain to the Winnipesaukee River. On August 9, a special district meeting appropriated an additional $5,000. Contracts were then made for the exterior of the building which was "well nigh completed" in late November. The contracts for the interior were let in the spring. And the building was finished shortly before the opening of the fall school term on September 5, 1887.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.