Everett acquires more Lakeport property as part of his pursuit to ‘enrich the town’

LACONIA — Winston Churchill once said that “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Scott Everett says that describes his motive for redeveloping parts of Lakeport.

Over the past three years Everett, who lives in Texas but who has family roots in the city and has a home here, has been purchasing property around Lakeport Square. His projects include the Lakeport Opera House building which he has restored, and just a few hundred feet away is Paugus-Elm, the multimillion-dollar mixed commercial-residential project which is under construction.

In addition, Everett has purchased eight other pieces of property in the immediate area.

“It’s part of my master plan in the continued quest to improve the neighborhood,” Everett said Tuesday.

One of those is a former multi-family residence at 171 Gold St. in Lakeport.

The Heritage Commission last week approved the application by Paugus-Elm LLC — one of Everett’s business entities — to demolish the building.

Everett said that he is unsure when the building will be torn down or what will be built on the site.

The original part of the house was built in 1778, according to Ginger Ryan, who grew up in the house from 1937 to 1956. Ryan’s father, Harold Tefft, a one-time Laconia city councilor, owned the house which by then had been enlarged and contained four apartments in addition to the Teffts’ living quarters.

Everett’s Antaeus Holdings LLC purchased the building last year, according to city records.

Other properties that have been acquired are a duplex at 12 Belvidere Street, which abuts the 171 Gold Street property, a small parcel of vacant waterfront land on Belvidere Street, 1.4 acres on Doris Ray Court close to the Lakeport Dam, a house built in 1865 at 28 Harrison St., and a building at 21 Fore Street. Another acquisition, a building at 59 Clinton Street, was recently torn down to make way for a planned artists’ studio to be used by performers at the Lakeport Opera House.

A building at 73 Elm Street — the so-called Walker Block — was also purchased by Everett last year and has since been torn down. There are no current plans for what to build on the corner lot which is across Park Street from the Paugus-Elm project.

Everett sees these land and building acquisitions as “part of my master plan to enrich the town.”

“I’ve just been blessed,” Everett said in an earlier interview. "If I didn’t give back to some degree, then I would be remiss the rest of my life for it... I’m fortunate that I can help people now.”