New lighting over Canal Street illuminates last summer block party

LACONIA — A two-year project to illuminate one of downtown’s busiest streets was capped off Saturday evening during the last Canal Street block party of the year.

Celebrate Laconia, a civic organization dedicated to promoting and assisting business and cultural interests in the city, fired up a lighting display above Canal Street on Saturday night during the final in a series of block parties organized in large part by business leaders including New Hampshire Vintage Vinyl owner Dan McLaughlin.

The final block party included four food vendors, live music and drinks served indoors and outdoors by Defiant Records & Craft Beer located on the corner of Canal and Main streets. 

“Tonight’s a big night for Celebrate Laconia,” Celebrate Laconia President Beth Castrucci said Saturday evening. “We started about two years ago approaching [the] City of Laconia to approve an idea to put lights up permanently on Canal Street — it has come to fruition tonight.”

Over 100 locals and visitors filled the one-way lane which connects Main and Beacon streets late on Saturday afternoon and the spirit remained merry through the evening. A stage production of "Fiddler on the Roof" by Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative at the Colonial Theatre attracted many, but even as those attending the show began to file toward the theater, more residents came to Canal Street to take their place.

The lighting display will remain overhead permanently and a light-sensitive timer will soon be installed, ensuring the street will be illuminated at dusk each day throughout the entire year. The lights will turn off each morning at dawn, Celebrate Laconia contributor and Realtor Warren Clement said. 

“We want to thank the City of Laconia and all of the building owners, the business owners, employees, city department workers, everybody that’s helped along the way,” Castrucci said. 

New Spectrum Lighting of Gilford worked to install 12 metal brackets, stainless steel wire, turnbuckles, electric power lines and ultimately, commercial-grade lighting 15 feet over Canal Street. 

The project took around two years to complete and cost $25,000 — downtown businesses contributed to the cost, and ownership of the lighting itself was turned over to the city. Following the approval of its installation by city council in June 2023, the city contributed $16,000 to the project. 

The lights connect, about halfway, at the Laconia Housing Authority building and stretch west toward Main Street and east toward City Hall. New Spectrum Lighting also worked with Celebrate Laconia to bring the Christmas tree display to downtown last year.

“New Spectrum Lighting, Emily and Ryan, they used their talents to create this wonderful plan for us,” Castrucci said. “We’d like to thank them the most because it took a lot of planning, time and effort.”

During an inaugural address, Castrucci noted Kellerhaus owner Daryl Dawson originated the idea of installing a permanent lighting display over Canal Street and thanked him for his support. 

“He’s the one that came up with the idea to start with Canal Street to put permanent lighting,” Castrucci said. “We hope to go and get other streets in the future.”

Dawson, who got involved with Celebrate Laconia about five years ago, said the idea came to him after viewing similar projects in Bar Harbor, Maine, during a successful attempt by that city to revitalize the economy and attract tourists and new residents. He noted a television program called "Home Town," where the city of Laurel, Mississippi, also initiated a similar project. In the opening scene of the show, the camera panned to frame lighting stretched over a downtown street.

“One of my inspirations for doing some things for the community was Bar Harbor, Maine,” Dawson said Monday afternoon. “We wanted to do the same thing for Laconia.”

He hopes the lighting project — which could expand to include Main Street in the future — will work to bring visitors and, ultimately, business to Laconia. Noting his business, a confectionary, tends to be slow in the off-season from tourism, he said creating a year-round spectacle downtown could provide tourists with another reason to visit.

“Warren [Clement] and I, but mostly Warren, spent a lot of time working with the city for all of the permits,” Dawson said. 

Following the approval of the Canal Street portion of the project, Dawson said city representatives were receptive to future projects on Main Street and through downtown. But extending the lighting project to Weirs Beach and Lakeport would require creative thinking because the infrastructure isn’t available to replicate the criss-crossing from building to building that’s the hallmark of the Canal Street portion. Members of Celebrate Laconia are always interested in looking at ways to make improvements in both of those villages, as well, he said. 

“That would be ideal,” he said. 

And Dawson remained optimistic that improvements to the city will gradually increase, drawing in tourists, businesses and new residents alike. He said the block parties this summer on Canal Street and the Christmas tree festival last year are two examples of great successes and he hopes to see more of the kind.

“Canal Street is such a great little place that you can sort of close off at any time and create that type of atmosphere,” he said.