Rodney N. Dyer Powerhouse Patio gets off the ground

LACONIA — It’s not everyday that a town father is commemorated through a patio outside the building where his great-grandfather worked. 

The Rodney N. Dyer Powerhouse Patio, to be constructed outside the Belknap Mill, will provide a new community gathering place, and a memorial to the contribution of one man and his family.

“It’s an honor to have this named after our family,” said Rod Dyer, a practicing attorney for over 60 years and the city’s mayor from 1968 to 1974. “I love this mill.”

In Dyer’s mind, one of his key contributions during his second term was helping the Save the Mill Society rescue the Belknap Mill building from being bulldozed to create 14 parking spaces. Its transformation over decades has been inspiring, and now the Belknap Mill is the country’s oldest textile mill still in existence with much of its inner workings intact, as well as a culture, arts and history museum on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s also part of the greater revival of downtown.

Last week, before a crowd of business leaders and former city leaders, the footprint for the patio was officially dedicated to Dyer.

“Rod has never stopped working for citizens of the Lakes Region area,” said Mike Seymour, former mayor and current senior vice president of Bank of New Hampshire in Laconia. The patio “is a visible reminder that the hard work and dedication of one person can indeed save the city.”

“The consistency and longevity of his service to the community has been incredible,” said former Mayor Matt Lahey, who served as head of city government in the late 1990s. “Rod has been the go-to guy. Great leaders not only lead, they inspire others to lead.”

“I continue to learn about the mill and its great history, and to appreciate the mill as a community meeting place, a place we can be proud of and can rally around,” said Mayor Andrew Hosmer. “As future generations come, they’ll appreciate the people who stepped up.”

“In two years, we’ll be celebrating our 200th anniversary,” said Karen Prior, president of the Belknap Mill Society. “I think of the generations and generations of stories this will inspire. This will be a community gathering space as this mill has been for 200 years.”

The Dyer Powerhouse Patio will connect the mill to Rotary Park, allowing spectators to sit on the lawn to view Mill programming.

Dyer is also known for wanting to integrate the Winnipesaukee River into downtown life. At one point he was ribbed for his advocacy by community members, who coined the term “Dyer Straits.”

That drive has not disappeared from Dyer, who is now in his 80s. “There are more things we can do to make the river part of our community.” 

For Dyer, the mill is a setting where immigrants worked hard – a stepping stone for many who toiled and  flourished.

“My great-grandfather came down as a young French-Canadian teenager in the 1870s,” said Dyer. “The first job he had was in this mill."

Napoleon Dionne couldn’t read a word of English, and picked it up by learning the few words that fellow mill worker chalked on cloth, Dyer said. He eventually saved up $50, enough to buy a barbershop downtown near the Belknap County Courthouse, and his customers included local lawyers and judges of the time. This inspired him to study law. Dionne became Laconia’s postmaster and built the Laconia Post Office. “He eventually ran for Congress but didn’t win because he was a Democrat,” said Dyer.

When Dyer served as Laconia’s mayor in the early 1970s, Laconia was a typical mill town with “a vibrant downtown and lots of shops and clothing stores,” and bustling with lots of people. Stores stayed open until 9 pm.

Dyer believes Laconia is having a renaissance now. “There’s a spirit in the community that is driving that – the young entrepreneurial spirit that I see and is welcome,” Dyer said.