Why is there an Old College Road in Salisbury if there is no college nearby?
- The Old College Road 1784 predates the Fourth NH Turnpike (Route 4) 1804
- It connected Boscawen, Salisbury, and Andover to the road north laid out by Governor Wentworth from Wolfeboro to Dartmouth College, ca 1770.
SEGMENT BY THE OLD TOLL HOUSE
Town Map shows the Old College Road fragments in this area, partially in use.
Note how the older road is across the western side of what is now Route 4. As the map shows, it continues to abt what is now mile marker 44.6 across Rte 4 (built 1805). This was also the site of the toll for the Fourth NH turnpike toll. A toll booth is described in historical literature. It then connects with the existing Old College Road east of Route 4.
As gleaned from the work of Paul Shaw in his book Historic Salisbury Houses and from The History of Salisbury by John Dearborn. 1890:
West side of Route 4:
From descriptions and rock walls, we can reasonably say that on the west side, it went northerly past the 1760 Webster House, green colonial, and descended to what is now the junction on the North end, where a Salisbury Historical Society property, deeded graveyard, is located. Going SOUTH, it is reasonable to say it descends from the Webster colonial a short distance to the white farm house just below the S. Webster House, where it then follows Rte. 4 briefly, perhaps as estimated below.
By abt 1784, there was an old north-south road that went through the Heights called College Road.
Note the odd lot line on the right of Rte 4 shortly after the junction of West Salisbury Road and Rte 4. There is also some question as to how the Old College Road went through the Heights, as Rte 4, the once toll road, does now.
What structures existed at the Heights as we know it in 1770-1785, when Old College Road was built?
Center Road School House, Old name 1778 (Old College? Rte 4 not built yet) b West Salisbury Road
The Fifield House (Hattans) abt 1775, Colonial Period
The Able Elkins House was built by 1785, but maybe as early as abt 1775 in the Colonial Period.
The S. Webster House was built by 1785, but maybe as early as abt 1760 in the Colonial Period,
Baptist Church 1790.
The rest were built abt 1790 and after.
Fourth NH Turnpike was planned before, but was built by 1805.
John Kepeer, a previous owner of the Abel Elkins house, which was built in 1775-1785, had maintained that his house had faced 180 degrees in reverse, so the entrance was another the road, before the turnpike went it. Presumably Old College Road?
“Vol 1 Page 438 of the road records refer to a road laid out by the selectmen (April 24, 1785) and tells it comes to the road that leads by said Abel Elkin dwelling.” -Paul Shaw.
Was this a connector between what we now call Oak Hill road that may have crossed and connected ot the Center roadway? Evidence of a rod exists next ot the Baptist Meet House Church ( now Salisbury Historical Society)
Remnants of a small road do exist next to the Baptist Cemetery, as well as perhaps a crossroad.
In 1839, the Baptist Church, now the Salisbury Historical Society, was moved to its present location. Described as “back” by Paul Shaw in Historic Salisbury Houses. Back by how much and why? It would be interesting to know if the oldest house at the heights (currently the Hattan house) had ever been moved. It technically predates both Old College Road and Route 4, except that roads through the Heights and Center Rangeway roads already existed. In any case, the changes came quickly with each decade, and the town’s orientation shifted.
GOING NORTH TO HANOVER
Old College Road Was A Road To Dartmouth College
In Salisbury, the road is east of Route 4 and reaches into Andover (Plains Road in Andover), crossing Route 3 in East Andover, then extending uphill by the same name, Old College Road, then likely up to Hill Center.
It is possible it then turned to Canaan and Enfield and connected with Wolfeboro road in Enfield; however, likely, it continued northward to Alexandria, then Hebron, where it connected to The Wolfeboro Road (Governor’s Road) in Hebron. Then onward to Dorchester, then Hanover.
WOLFEBORO ROAD- Wolfeboro to Hanover
Governor’s Road Map by Frank Barrett Jr. Thank you to Alistair Mulligan of the Hanover Conservancy. Governor’s Road Map
For more details: Wolfeboro-Road-Handout
According to John Dearborn in the History of Salisbury, 296, written in 1890
“A hundred years ago, in the early days of Dartmouth College, it was considered necessary that good roads be constructed from different points to Hanover. Governor John Wentworth, in the days of his administration, caused such a road to be made from his mansion in Wolfeboro. Roads were built along the borders of the Connecticut and from other localities; highways were opened to facilitate travel to the seat of learning, which, a few years previous, had been established in the wilderness.
Among others, one was proposed which was to commence on the Merrimack in Boscawen and extend through Salisbury to the Connecticut River at or near Dartmouth College.”
The proposal was accepted, and the road was surveyed, and then things got quite confusing. The road was built, but not on the exact plan of the committee.
TO SUM UP
It likely went from the homestead of Henry Gerrish opposite the later Gerrish train Station, Route 3, river road, Boscawen, County farm buildings area, then northerly, not along the brook, which is steep terrain, but along the high ground into Salisbury. Cat hole Road? John Dearborn mentions the Angell Mill and the John Gale Homestead; however, the Gale homestead is on North Road, built later, so it is quite confusing, unless there is another such structure. In any case, oral history has it going up to Water Street and coming in Calef Hill Road into the cemetery area …then Old Coach and then heading northward towards Andover generally along what is now Route 4. It is not clear if it went along Whittemore Road.
As shown when it went through the Heights, it began to veer off to the west the the east at the toll booth area (35 years later).
It extends northerly, and this remnant goes by the name Old College Road into Keyser Rd. Just before the Andover line (west side) is what was likely a traveler’s stop, an old stage route. Coaches were in operation in the late 1700s in NH.
A substantial dug well, foundation, and metalwork from the property of Alain Godbout on Old College Road, Salisbury, supports an oral history that this was an old stage stop and likely a blacksmith shop. This area is located close to the Andover line, west side of the road. Mr.Godbout is doing extensive research, reviewing deeds, histories, and digging to unravel the answers. Deeds often do not indicate use, so it is an arduous task.
1943 hand-drawn map. Map by Ed Coyne, a longtime resident of the junction of Old College Road and Rte 4. Mile marker 44.6 Route 4.
How much was Old College Road still in use after 1805 when the turnpike was constructed? More research is needed, but perhaps for quite a while, based on the following. One might have assumed it became obsolete as the new road became more widely used. However, it was a toll road, and there is more to this story:
History of Salisbury by John Dearborn, page 315:
“The road was never popular: toll bridges and pike roads seldom are. Though residents of the town were privileged to pass free on business within town limits and when attending church, or school, or funerals, they often cheated the road of its revenue by acting if not uttering falsehoods, and adopted measures it increase its unpopularity: complaints were filed against it management: suits were brought to recover damages through the neglect of its managers and operators and petitions were sent tot he Legislature for the repeal of its charter. But it lived until the year 1840.”
Brief History of Roads to Hanover
1759: On October 5, 1759, Governor Benning Wentworth charters the Town of Wolfeboro, which he named in honor of the fallen hero General James Wolfe.
1761: Governor of NH Benning Wentworth decides to open the upper region of the Connecticut River valley for settlement, and that March sends out a surveying team to lay out new townships north of Charlestown, up to the mouth of the Ammonoosuc River.
1761: On July 4th, Governor Wentworth charters the first towns within the upper Connecticut River valley: Hanover, Norwich, Hartford, Lebanon, and Enfield.
1765: The first permanent settler in Hanover, Edmund Freeman III, spends the winter instead of returning to Connecticut.
1769: Governor John Wentworth began construction of a new country estate for himself in Wolfeboro on Smith’s Pond.
1769: On December 13th, Rev. Dr. Eleazar Wheelock of Lebanon, Connecticut, after working with Governor John Wentworth, secured a charter from King George III for a new college to be located in New Hampshire. Wentworth, as Royal Governor, was to be on the Board of Trustees of the new college.
1770: In August, after selecting Hanover as the site for his new college in July, Wheelock arrives on the Hanover Plain – a dense wilderness. Hanover has about twenty-five families living within the town – the nearest one about 2 miles from the site of the new college. It is 175 miles down the Connecticut River to Wheelock’s former home in the town of Lebanon, Connecticut.