Editing Concord, New Hampshire (section)

==History==
[[File:Old Town House.GIF|thumb|left| Old Town House, 1790]]
The area that would become Concord was originally settled thousands of years ago by [[Abenaki]] Native Americans called the [[Pennacook]].<ref name="Lyford">{{cite book |last=Lyford |first=James |author2=Amos Hadley |author3=Howard F. Hill |author4=Benjamin A. Kimball |author5=Lyman D. Stevens |author6=John M. Mitchell |title=History of Concord, N.H. |publisher=The Rumford Press |year=1903 |location=Concord, N.H. |url=http://www.concordnh.gov/index.aspx?NID=1047 |format=PDF |access-date=June 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715100036/http://www.concordnh.gov/index.aspx?NID=1047 |archive-date=July 15, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|65}} The tribe fished for [[Fish migration|migrating]] [[salmon]], [[sturgeon]], and [[alewife (fish)|alewives]] with nets strung across the rapids of the [[Merrimack River]]. The stream was also the transportation route for their [[birch bark]] canoes, which could travel from [[Lake Winnipesaukee]] to the Atlantic Ocean. The broad sweep of the Merrimack River valley [[floodplain]] provided good soil for farming [[bean]]s, [[gourd]]s, [[pumpkin]]s, [[melon]]s and [[maize]].

The area was first settled by Europeans in 1659 as Penacook, after the Abenaki word "pannukog" meaning "bend in the river," referencing the steep bends of the [[Merrimack River]] through the area.<ref name=NHES/> On January 17, 1725, the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], which then claimed territories west of the Merrimack, granted the Concord area as the Plantation of Penacook.<ref name=Lyford/>{{rp|107}} It was settled between 1725 and 1727 by Captain [[Ebenezer Eastman]] and others from [[Haverhill, Massachusetts]]. On February 9, 1734, the town was incorporated as "Rumford",<ref name=Lyford/>{{rp|147}} from which [[Benjamin Thompson|Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford]], would take his title. It was renamed "Concord" in 1765 by Governor [[Benning Wentworth]] following a bitter boundary dispute between Rumford and the town of [[Bow, New Hampshire|Bow]]; the city name was meant to reflect the new concord, or harmony, between the disputant towns.<ref name=":3">{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Jacob |title=Annals of the Town of Concord |publisher=Jacob B. Moore |year=1824 |location=Concord, N.H. |pages=31–34}}</ref> Citizens displaced by the resulting border adjustment were given land elsewhere as compensation. In 1779, New Pennacook Plantation was granted to Timothy Walker Jr. and his associates at what would be incorporated in 1800 as [[Rumford, Maine]], the site of Pennacook Falls.

Concord grew in prominence throughout the 18th century, and some of the earliest houses from this period survive at [[Concord Historic District|the northern end of Main Street]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/c0dfaee3-eae5-4738-b57b-4c10691b0158 |title=National Register of Historic Places: Concord Historic District |access-date=February 1, 2019}}</ref> In the years following the [[American Revolution|Revolution]], Concord's central geographical location made it a logical choice for the state capital, particularly after Samuel Blodget in 1807 opened a [[canal]] and [[lock (water navigation)|lock]] system to allow vessels passage around the [[Amoskeag Falls]] downriver, connecting Concord with [[Boston]] by way of the [[Middlesex Canal]]. In 1808, Concord was named the official seat of state government,<ref name="Lyford" />{{rp|324–326}} and in 1816 architect Stuart Park was commissioned to design a new capitol building for the [[New Hampshire General Court|state legislature]] on land sold to the state by local [[Quakers]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lyford |first1=James O. |title=History of Concord, New Hampshire, vol. 2. |date=1896 |publisher=City of Concord |location=Concord NH |page=vol. 2, 713–714 |url=https://www.concordnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/766}}</ref> Construction on the [[New Hampshire State House|State House]] was completed in 1819, and it remains the oldest capitol in the nation in which the state's legislative branches meet in their original chambers. Concord was also named the seat of [[Merrimack County, New Hampshire|Merrimack County]] in 1823, and the [[Merrimack County Courthouse]] was constructed in 1857 in the North End at the site of the Old Town House.<ref>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=79000202}}|title=NRHP nomination for Merrimack County Courthouse|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2014-03-07}}</ref>

In the early 19th century, much of the city's economy was dominated by [[furniture]]-making, printing, and [[granite]] [[quarry]]ing; granite had become a popular building material for many monumental halls in the early United States, and Concord granite was used in the construction of both the New Hampshire State House and the [[Library of Congress]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Concord-New-Hampshire|title=Concord, New Hampshire, United States|access-date=May 31, 2022}}</ref> In 1828, Lewis Downing joined J. Stephens Abbot to form [[Abbot-Downing Company|Abbot and Downing]].<ref name=Lyford/>{{rp|339–340}} Their most famous product was their [[Concord coach]], widely used in the development of the [[American West]], and their enterprise largely boosted and changed the city economy in the mid-19th century. In subsequent years, Concord would also become a hub for the [[railroad]] industry, with Penacook a [[textile]] manufacturing center using [[hydropower|water power]] from the [[Contoocook River]]. The city also around this time started to become a center for the emerging healthcare industry, with [[New Hampshire State Hospital]] opening in 1842 as one of the first [[psychiatric hospital]]s in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dcbcs/nhh/history.htm|title=History of NHH - New Hampshire Hospital - NH Department of Health and Human Services|website=www.dhhs.nh.gov}}</ref> The State Hospital continued to expand throughout the following decades, and in 1891 [[Concord Hospital (New Hampshire)|Concord Hospital]] opened its doors as Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital, the first general hospital in the state of New Hampshire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lyford |first=James O. |title=THE MARGARET PILLSBURY GENERAL HOSPITAL |url=https://www.concordnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/774/Lyford-V2-Chapter-25?bidId= |access-date=26 October 2022 |website=Concord, NH - Official Website}}</ref>

Concord's economy changed once again in the 20th century with the declining railroad and textile industry. The city developed into a center for national politics due to New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, and many presidential candidates still visit the Concord area during campaign season.<ref>{{cite book |last=Milne |first=John |date=January 1, 2011 |title=Crosscurrents of Change: Concord, N.H. in the 20th Century |publisher=Concord Historical Society |isbn=978-0982857922}}</ref> The city also developed an identity within the emerging [[space industry]], with the [[McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center]] opening in 1990 to commemorate [[Alan Shepard]], the first American in space from nearby [[Derry, New Hampshire|Derry]], and [[Christa McAuliffe]], a teacher at [[Concord High School (New Hampshire)|Concord High School]] who died in the 1986 [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]]. Today, Concord remains a center for politics, law, healthcare, and [[insurance company|insurance companies]].
<gallery>
Image:First Concord Bridge.GIF| First Concord Bridge, 1795
Image:State House, Concord, NH.jpg|State House {{circa|1906}} 
Image:Main Street, Concord, NH.jpg|Main Street {{circa|1908}}
Image:City Hall, Concord, NH.jpg|City Hall in 1913
Image:Old Library, Concord, NH.jpg|Old Library {{circa|1915}}
Image:Post Office, Concord, NH.jpg|Old Post Office in 1910
</gallery>