Meredith Neck Rd bridge repair

[fatlazyless]

Meredith Neck Rd is a non-numbered state road, not a town road, and the bridge will be reconstructed by the N.H. Dept of Transportation and the H.E. Sargent Corp from Orono, Maine. It is a $732.430 project.

H.E. Sargent Corp ......www.sargent.us/who-we-are/

So, why is Meredith Neck Rd a non-numbered state road and not a town road?

The answer goes back to the 1880's when New Hampshire politicians in Concord were look'n for a faster, easier route to get out to Bear Island Hotel. There's a good sized old stone bridge that crosses a brook between the Lower Meadow and Upper Meadow Farms, still in use, at the start of the Meredith Neck Rd, plus some big hills, and low, wet swamp land and it was the State of NH motivated by the Bear Island Hotel-NH politicians that got it built. What really mattered was having a good time and the Bear Island Hotel was a happening place and the Concord pols needed a better, faster way to get out there. They would take the train from Concord on Friday afternoon to Meredith and then traveled by horse and buggy down the Meredith Neck Rd and they crossed this bridge when they got there.

Unfortunately, the Bear Island Hotel, a 40-room structure burned down on Thursday, November 8, 1934, 90 years ago and was never replaced.