Historic Jackson, New Hampshire
As mentioned in my previous post, our destination for the first night of our vacation was located in the town of Jackson, New Hampshire so before I get to the lovely inn that we stayed at, I reckon I should tell you a bit about Jackson itself!
Jackson was originally not named Jackson but was called New Madbury after the town of Madbury which is located down near Dover (and Newick's!) and where the original inhabitants were from. Even though the town was settled in 1778 by Benjamin Copp and his family once a road was put through from Pinkham Notch, the town wasn't actually incorporated until December 4th, 1800. At that time the name of the town was changed to Adams in honor of of country's second President, John Adams. The town remained as Adams until 1829 when the name was changed to Jackson to honor President Andrew Jackson.
According to the town's historical society: "While the record, official or otherwise, is unclear as to who instigated the name change, it was motivated in response to the election of President Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. The popularity of President Jackson is reflected in that only one vote was cast for keeping Adams as the name." Kind of makes you feel bad for President Adams, doesn't it?
Around the mid-1800's, Jackson became the hot spot for artists who started flocking to the area so that they could paint the beauty of the area on canvas; once those canvasses were seen lots and lots of other people started visiting so that they could see the beautiful mountains and rivers and vistas for themselves. Honestly, I can't say that I blame them as it truly is beautiful there and I went to sleep last night wishing that I could finally win that elusive lottery so that I could move there myself for at least three out of the four seasons - I'm not sure if I'm hale and hearty enough to handle the winters but I can only imagine how gorgeous it is up there with the snow covering the mountains!
In 1876, the same team who built the Saco River Covered Bridge - Charles Austin Broughton and his son Frank - built a covered bridge over the Ellis River in Jackson. The bridge was named the Honeymoon Bridge based on the tradition of young couples using the shaded passages to steal a kiss and the local custom has carried on with many newly married couples having their picture taken at the bridge. The day I was there I didn't see anyone stealing any kisses but I sure did see a lot of people taking pictures but who can blame them? It's a gorgeous bridge and very well-maintained by the town!
As with the Saco River Covered Bridge, the Broughtons used the Paddleford truss design and created a bridge that is is 121'-1" long with a single span of 103'-0". It has an overall width of 26'-5" with a roadway width of 16-'0" making it most definitely a single lane only. The covered sidewalk on the side of the bridge was added by the town in 1930.
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The Honeymoon Bridge is #51 of New Hampshire's historic covered bridges and it's so pretty I'm just going to have to share some pictures with you!
As mentioned, the bridge spans the Ellis River which is a 16.7 mile tributary of the Saco River. In Pinkham Notch the river flows over Glen Ellis Falls which is supposed to be quite lovely in addition to being easy to access off of Route 16 but unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to go see the falls as it was starting to get late in the day and there were other areas in Jackson that I wanted to get to before I lost all light. I'll just have to get to them another day! In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the Ellis River in the area of the covered bridge.
This guy was fishing but you can't really see his fishing pole.
On just the other side of the Honeymoon Bridge is a place that looked interesting but had unfortunately closed before I had the chance to get to:
Apparently Flossie's General Store and Emporium (I just love that word 'emporium'!) has been a part of Jackson since the mid-1950's and it's about as quaint as one can get! I wish I'd had the chance to explore the interior a little bit but alas, not this trip. Next time definitely!
Jackson was having its 23rd annual Return of the Pumpkin People contest while we were there and even though I didn't have the opportunity to see all of the entries, I did catch the one in front of Flossie's which tied for First in the Most Creative category:
with the Debony Salon pink pumpkin flamingos that were across the street:
If you're wondering HOW to make a pink pumpkin flamingo of your own, this close-up shot of one should give you the general idea of what you need and how to put one together. Very creative, don't you think?
Next post I'll take you over to Jackson Falls which is near the center of Jackson Village and powered by the Wildcat River which was designated as New Hampshire's first federally designated "Wild and Scenic River". Even though the river was most definitely scenic, due to the drier summer that New Hampshire had this year the river wasn't quite as wild as it could have been and considering I almost fell in, I'm thinking that's a good thing!
Jackson was originally not named Jackson but was called New Madbury after the town of Madbury which is located down near Dover (and Newick's!) and where the original inhabitants were from. Even though the town was settled in 1778 by Benjamin Copp and his family once a road was put through from Pinkham Notch, the town wasn't actually incorporated until December 4th, 1800. At that time the name of the town was changed to Adams in honor of of country's second President, John Adams. The town remained as Adams until 1829 when the name was changed to Jackson to honor President Andrew Jackson.According to the town's historical society: "While the record, official or otherwise, is unclear as to who instigated the name change, it was motivated in response to the election of President Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. The popularity of President Jackson is reflected in that only one vote was cast for keeping Adams as the name." Kind of makes you feel bad for President Adams, doesn't it?
Around the mid-1800's, Jackson became the hot spot for artists who started flocking to the area so that they could paint the beauty of the area on canvas; once those canvasses were seen lots and lots of other people started visiting so that they could see the beautiful mountains and rivers and vistas for themselves. Honestly, I can't say that I blame them as it truly is beautiful there and I went to sleep last night wishing that I could finally win that elusive lottery so that I could move there myself for at least three out of the four seasons - I'm not sure if I'm hale and hearty enough to handle the winters but I can only imagine how gorgeous it is up there with the snow covering the mountains!
In 1876, the same team who built the Saco River Covered Bridge - Charles Austin Broughton and his son Frank - built a covered bridge over the Ellis River in Jackson. The bridge was named the Honeymoon Bridge based on the tradition of young couples using the shaded passages to steal a kiss and the local custom has carried on with many newly married couples having their picture taken at the bridge. The day I was there I didn't see anyone stealing any kisses but I sure did see a lot of people taking pictures but who can blame them? It's a gorgeous bridge and very well-maintained by the town!
As with the Saco River Covered Bridge, the Broughtons used the Paddleford truss design and created a bridge that is is 121'-1" long with a single span of 103'-0". It has an overall width of 26'-5" with a roadway width of 16-'0" making it most definitely a single lane only. The covered sidewalk on the side of the bridge was added by the town in 1930.
>The Honeymoon Bridge is #51 of New Hampshire's historic covered bridges and it's so pretty I'm just going to have to share some pictures with you!
As mentioned, the bridge spans the Ellis River which is a 16.7 mile tributary of the Saco River. In Pinkham Notch the river flows over Glen Ellis Falls which is supposed to be quite lovely in addition to being easy to access off of Route 16 but unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to go see the falls as it was starting to get late in the day and there were other areas in Jackson that I wanted to get to before I lost all light. I'll just have to get to them another day! In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the Ellis River in the area of the covered bridge.
On just the other side of the Honeymoon Bridge is a place that looked interesting but had unfortunately closed before I had the chance to get to:
Apparently Flossie's General Store and Emporium (I just love that word 'emporium'!) has been a part of Jackson since the mid-1950's and it's about as quaint as one can get! I wish I'd had the chance to explore the interior a little bit but alas, not this trip. Next time definitely!
Jackson was having its 23rd annual Return of the Pumpkin People contest while we were there and even though I didn't have the opportunity to see all of the entries, I did catch the one in front of Flossie's which tied for First in the Most Creative category:
with the Debony Salon pink pumpkin flamingos that were across the street:
If you're wondering HOW to make a pink pumpkin flamingo of your own, this close-up shot of one should give you the general idea of what you need and how to put one together. Very creative, don't you think?
Next post I'll take you over to Jackson Falls which is near the center of Jackson Village and powered by the Wildcat River which was designated as New Hampshire's first federally designated "Wild and Scenic River". Even though the river was most definitely scenic, due to the drier summer that New Hampshire had this year the river wasn't quite as wild as it could have been and considering I almost fell in, I'm thinking that's a good thing!
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