Which is Laconia's oldest business?

LACONIA — The guesses are in, the facts are checked, and it’s official: the Belknap Mill, founded in 1823 and now a museum, is the oldest business in the city.

The finding comes as Joia Hughes, the city’s director of economic edvelopment and housing, wraps up a project she started on Facebook in September 2025, with a post that read, “What do you think is the oldest running business in Laconia?”

Hughes wanted to put something out to the residents of Laconia via Facebook that would be fun and also interesting. Dozens of people offered guesses and ideas, and Hughes started a list, confirming the facts with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office.

A city leader since October 2024, she now knows the 65 oldest businesses, in the order they were established.

Along with Belknap Mill, these organizations are also in the top 10: Bank of New Hampshire (formerly Laconia Savings Bank), 1831; Wilkinson-Beane, (now Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services), 1860; Melcher & Prescott Insurance, 1862; Boulia-Gorrell Lumber Co., 1872; Laconia Hospital (now Concord Hospital-Laconia), 1893; Kellerhaus, 1906; Hebert Foundry, 1912; the Colonial Theatre, 1914; and Irwin Marine, 1919.

“The list was longer than I thought it was going to be,” Hughes said. “They are all businesses that have been here" over 100 years, and some, 200.

She expects to post the list on Facebook, but will primarily use it to build relationships and reach out to business owners with anniversary notes, like, “Hey, you made it. You won.”

“Cheering on our community and successes is important,” she said. 

Inspiration for a history lesson

Before Hughes began work with the city, she was an affordable housing developer who worked for Laconia Area Land Trust, now Lakes Region Community Developers. She also worked in Concord in economic development and grant writing, and has managed her own rental portfolio.

Her position is a new one in the city, and its creation came out of a mayoral task force that met in 2021 and 2022.

Last year, after asking people around the city informal questions about what they liked about downtown and what the best draws are, she was hearing feedback that didn’t quite compute. “People were saying businesses never last very long,” she says.

Hughes has lived in the region for 28 years — 13 in Laconia, and 15 in Meredith, where she lives now — and she began to wonder how long many of the businesses have been around.

“There was quite a turnover in the downtown area for a while,” she noted. “I wanted to see which businesses" had been around for many years, and which went through the COVID pandemic, and were still there.

She put the Facebook post out there, and people were immediately interested, and began tossing out ideas.

“Dutile Oil 1923,” from Rebekah Dutile.

“Colonial Theater?” from Mike Foy.

And from Jeff Mayer, “Boy, that’s a tough one I’m gonna say Henry’s dry cleaners had to go back on my memory on that one.”

The ideas kept coming, with suggestions ranging from very new businesses to those dating back over a century and a half, and from small organizations to massive ones. Hughes’ post has had 67 comments in all.

“People were pretty engaged,” she said. “I think people had fun with it, and I found out about businesses that I didn’t know existed. It brought newer businesses to peoples’ attention.”

Another learning from the project

As she got deeper into her work, Hughes also wanted to observe the current status of city businesses — were they still successful and growing?

In that realm, she was buoyed by not only growth, but also collaboration between organizations.

She found, for instance, Laconia Village Bakery provides pastries to patrons of Commune a NH Vintage Vinyl now partners with Defiant Records & Craft Beer, offering events.

“What I see is a downtown that is working closely together to be successful,” Hughes said.