Concord is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the 3rd most populous city in New Hampshire after Manchester and Nashua. Governor Benning Wentworth gave the city its current name in 1765 following a boundary dispute with the neighboring town of Bow; the name was meant to signify the new concord, or harmony, between the two towns.

The area was first settled in 1659. On January 17, 1725, the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which then claimed territories west of the Merrimack, granted the Concord area as the Plantation of Penacook. It was settled between 1725 and 1727 and, on February 9, 1734, the town was incorporated as “Rumford.” In 1808, Concord was named the official seat of state government. The State House was completed in 1819 and remains the oldest U.S. state capitol wherein the legislature meets in its original chambers.

Concord is entirely within the Merrimack River watershed and the city is centered on the river. The Merrimack runs from northwest to southeast through the city. The city’s eastern boundary is formed by the Soucook River, which separates Concord from the town of Pembroke. The Turkey River passes through the southwestern quarter of the city. The city consists of its downtown, including the North End and South End neighborhoods, along with the four villages of Penacook, Concord Heights, East Concord, and West Concord. Penacook sits along the Contoocook River, just before it flows into the Merrimack.

As of 2020, the top employer in the city was the State of New Hampshire, and the largest private employer was Concord Hospital. Concord is home to the University of New Hampshire School of Law, New Hampshire’s only law school; St. Paul’s School, a private preparatory school; NHTI, a two-year community college; the New Hampshire Police Academy; and the New Hampshire Fire Academy. Concord’s Old North Cemetery is the final resting place of Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States.

Interstate 89 and Interstate 93 are the two main interstate highways serving the city, and general aviation access is via Concord Municipal Airport. The nearest airport with commercial air service is Manchester–Boston Regional Airport, 23 miles (37 km) to the south. There has been no passenger rail service to Concord since 1981. Historically, the Boston and Maine Railroad served the city.

History

The area that would become Concord was originally settled thousands of years ago by Abenaki Native Americans called the Pennacook.^: 65 The tribe fished for migrating salmon, sturgeon, and alewives with nets strung across the rapids of the Merrimack River. The stream was also the transportation route for their birch bark canoes, which could travel from Lake Winnipesaukee to the Atlantic Ocean. The broad sweep of the Merrimack River valley floodplain provided good soil for farming beans, gourds, pumpkins, melons and maize.

The area was first settled by Europeans in 1659 as Penacook, after the Abenaki word “pannukog” meaning “bend in the river,” referencing the steep bends of the Merrimack River through the area. On January 17, 1725, the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which then claimed territories west of the Merrimack, granted the Concord area as the Plantation of Penacook. It was settled between 1725 and 1727 by Captain Ebenezer Eastman and others from Haverhill, Massachusetts. On February 9, 1734, the town was incorporated as “Rumford”, from which Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, would take his title. It was renamed “Concord” in 1765 by Governor Benning Wentworth following a bitter boundary dispute between Rumford and the town of Bow; the city name was meant to reflect the new concord, or harmony, between the disputant towns. Citizens displaced by the resulting border adjustment were given land elsewhere as compensation. In 1779, New Pennacook Plantation was granted to Timothy Walker Jr. and his associates at what would be incorporated in 1800 as Rumford, Maine, the site of Pennacook Falls.

Concord grew in prominence throughout the 18th century, and some of the earliest houses from this period survive at the northern end of Main Street. In the years following the Revolution, Concord’s central geographical location made it a logical choice for the state capital, particularly after Samuel Blodget in 1807 opened a canal and lock system to allow vessels passage around the Amoskeag Falls downriver, connecting Concord with Boston by way of the Middlesex Canal. In 1808, Concord was named the official seat of state government, and in 1816 architect Stuart Park was commissioned to design a new capitol building for the state legislature on land sold to the state by local Quakers. Construction on the State House was completed in 1819, and it remains the oldest capitol in the nation in which the state’s legislative branches meet in their original chambers. Concord was also named the seat of Merrimack County in 1823, and the Merrimack County Courthouse was constructed in 1857 in the North End at the site of the Old Town House.

In the early 19th century, much of the city’s economy was dominated by furniture-making, printing, and granite quarrying; granite had become a popular building material for many monumental halls in the early United States, and Concord granite was used in the construction of both the New Hampshire State House and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. In 1828, Lewis Downing joined J. Stephens Abbot to form Abbot and Downing. Their most famous product was their Concord coach, widely used in the development of the American West, and their enterprise largely boosted and changed the city economy in the mid-19th century. In subsequent years, Concord would also become a hub for the railroad industry, with Penacook a textile manufacturing center using water power from the Contoocook River. The city also around this time started to become a center for the emerging healthcare industry, with New Hampshire State Hospital opening in 1842 as one of the first psychiatric hospitals in the United States. The State Hospital continued to expand throughout the following decades, and in 1891 Concord Hospital opened its doors as Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital, the first general hospital in the state of New Hampshire.

Concord’s economy changed once again in the 20th century with the declining railroad and textile industry. The city developed into a center for national politics due to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, and many presidential candidates still visit the Concord area during campaign season. The city also developed an identity within the emerging space industry, with the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center opening in 1990 to commemorate Alan Shepard, the first American in space from nearby Derry, and Christa McAuliffe, a teacher at Concord High School who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Today, Concord remains a center for politics, law, healthcare, and insurance companies.

Education

Public schools

Concord’s public schools are within the Concord School District, except for schools in the Penacook area of the city, which are within the Merrimack Valley School District, a district which also includes several towns north of Concord. The only public high school in the Concord School District is Concord High School, which has about 2,000 students. The only public middle school in the Concord School District is Rundlett Middle School, which has roughly 1,500 students. Concord School District’s elementary schools underwent a major re-configuration in 2012, with three newly constructed schools opening and replacing six previous schools. Kimball School and Walker School were replaced by Christa McAuliffe School on the Kimball School site, Conant School (and Rumford School, which closed a year earlier) were replaced by Abbot-Downing School at the Conant site, and Eastman and Dame schools were replaced by Mill Brook School, serving kindergarten through grade two, located next to Broken Ground Elementary School, serving grades three to five. Beaver Meadow School, the remaining elementary school, was unaffected by the changes.

Concord schools in the Merrimack Valley School District include Merrimack Valley High School and Merrimack Valley Middle School, which are adjacent to each other and to Rolfe Park in Penacook village, and Penacook Elementary School, just south of the village.

Private and charter schools

Concord has two parochial schools, Bishop Brady High School and Saint John Regional School.

Other area private schools include Concord Christian Academy, Parker Academy, Trinity Christian School, and Shaker Road School. Also in Concord is St. Paul’s School, a boarding school located in the city’s West End neighborhood.

Post-secondary schools

Concord is home to New Hampshire Technical Institute, the city’s primary community college, and Granite State College, which offers online two-year and four-year degrees. The University of New Hampshire School of Law is located near downtown, and the Franklin Pierce University Doctorate of Physical Therapy program also has a location in the city. Concord Hospital recently announced plans to open a joint program with the New England College School of Nursing as part of their Bachelor of Nursing degree. Concord is also a major clinical site of Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, New Hampshire’s only medical school.

Demographics

As of the census of 2020, there were 43,976 people residing in the city. The population density was 687.7 people per square mile (265.5 people/km). At the 2010 Census there were 42,695 residents and 10,052 families in the city, as well as 18,852 housing units at an average density of 293.2 per square mile (113.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city in 2020 was 84.5% White, 4.9% Black or African American, 1.0% Native American, 4.9% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.4% from some other race, and 1.8% from two or more races. 4.9% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

In 2010 there were 17,592 households, out of which 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.3% were headed by married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.9% were non-families. 33.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.0% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26, and the average family size was 2.90.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 20.7% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.9 males.

For the period 2009–2011, the estimated median annual income for a household in the city was $52,695, and the median income for a family was $73,457. Male full-time workers had a median income of $49,228 versus $38,782 for females. The per capita income for the city was $29,296. About 5.5% of families and 10.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.4% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.