Why are we calling Squire Clark's home the Hathaway House?

LACONIA — "They can call it whatever they want, but people of my generation will always remember it as the Hathaway House," said Charlie St. Clair, whose late mother Constance and her husband Richard owned the Victorian mansion at 1106 Union Avenue where she operated the clothing store from which the building took its name.

"It was always known as the Squire Clark House until the 1950s," said John Perley, whose childhood home at the corner of Clark Avenue and Union Avenue — now the site of Paramount Settlement Services, LLC — is less than a block from the landmark. He recalled that each year children in the neighborhood turned the sloped yard into a toboggan run and tapped the maple trees for syrup.

"I think that such a historical building should be dignified with its original name." Perley hastened to say that he meant no disrespect to the St. Clairs, but said that the Hathaway House was not only of recent vintage but also referred to a business not the building.

The home was built in 1870 by Samuel C. Clark, a prominent attorney in Lakeport, then known as Lake Village. Clark was born in Lake Village on January 9, 1832, when Andrew Jackson began his second term as president of the United States. He was schooled in Gilford and at the New Hampton Academy then studied law with Stephen Lyford of Laconia and Asa Fowler of Laconia. In 1857, Clark was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar and named Clerk of the Court in Belknap County, a position he held until 1874.

Clark served two two-year terms the New Hampshire House of Representatives, the first in 1867 and the second 10 years later. Meanwhile, he was named assistant Clerk of the House in 1870 and 1872 and Clerk in 1873 and 1875. Perhaps his initial political success went to his head, because Clark, who was called "Squire," had begun to fancy himself a future governor and intended the house would be his official residence.

Although he never became governor, Clark earned notoriety and respect in the the community. He was a promoter and director of the Laconia and Lake Village Horse Railroad and during the Civil War served as deputy provost marshal, overseeing the military police. Later he was a director of both Laconia National Bank and Lake Village Savings Bank. All the while he maintained a lively law practice at the Clark Block on Elm Street. Clark died unexpectedly on March 19, 1897 after a brief bout of pneumonia.

Clark and his wife Clarissa had three children. A son Samuel Clarence, born in 1857, died in infancy, but three years later Clarissa gave birth to twins, Samuel Clarence, known as Samuel, Jr. and Claribel. Samuel, Jr. married but sired no offspring. He died in December, 1901, eleven months after his mother passed away at the age of 66.

Claribel, who never married, lived in the family home while traveling frequently and widely, until her death at 93 in 1953. Local legend has it that her ghost has stalked the mansion ever since.

Four years later, the St. Clairs acquired the property. In September 1957, The Laconia Evening Citizen reported that the St. Clairs, Constance and her husband Richard, had restored the house to its "Victorian splendor" inside and out to house a clothing store called the Hathaway House.

"All Laconia has watched with interest and appreciation the work as it has progressed," wrote City Editor Ebba M. Janson, "and the couple have received many letters from persons who visited the house years ago thanking them." The exterior of the house was painted a gray beige, setting off the distinctive white woodwork, while the interior was decorated with Victorian wall papers and period hues and graced with elegant chandeliers. The weathervane and cupola, sold earlier to an antique dealer, were returned to the barn.

In the 1970s, the St. Clairs sold the property, which became home to a string of businesses before it was acquired in 2000 by an affiliate of Cafua Management Company, LLC of North Andover, Massachusetts, the largest Dunkin Donuts franchisee in the Northeast, as the site of new store.

Originally the firm planned to demolish the Hathaway House and replace it with a strip mall, but in response to pleas from concerned residents and city officials agreed to build only the new Dunkin' Donuts building and preserve the Victorian landmark. In 2008, when the Planning Board approved the project, Gregg Nolan, director of development and construction for the company, volunteered to paint the Hathaway House and fit it with fire alarm and suppression systems.

This week, after several years delay, work to repair, renovate and repaint the building began. Pam Clark, who chairs the Heritage Commission, said "I'm so happy that something will be done before winter." She explained that an analysis of the paint on the house undertaken to determine its original colors determined that when it was built it was painted taupe, a word derived from the Latin name for the Common European Mole designating a grayish brown hue. The ornate trim was cream and the shutters a dark green.

Clark said that the mansion will be finished in its original garb. And Perley prefers it be known by its appropriate name — the Squire Clark House — to match.