Belknap College
 

Located in Center Harbor in the late 1960's and early 1970's, some wise guy called Belknap College basically a way to avoid getting drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. As I recall, when the Vietnam War and the draft ended, so did Belknap College, so maybe there's some truth to that. I do not know?

Anyway, there's a list of a couple hundred Belknap College graduates, many with New Hampshire addresses.

Up behind Heath's Supermarket, there's a huge victorian house that once was part of Belknap College. It is a wreck! It sits on timbers, awaiting to be moved, and it's been waiting for about 15 years. A huge, old satellite dish hangs from the roof.

Anyway, www.belknapcollege.com still exists at least in the internet.

The building behind Heath's was a gift shop and nurseing home that was located next to the church in Center Harbor.where the parking lot is now.It was was never part of Belknap college.Coe house was a dorm,the two buildings that sat where Heath's is now were dorms.and two more around the cornor as you start up 25b.Out on Bean rd where the church is on the right,that was a dorm also.If you go up the hill past the Post Office there was another small one on the left.That's the list

Vets
 

That's an old slander FLL. Many of us were veterans.


http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3.../bkbrigade.jpg

This WEBPAGE that was referenced above is fascinating and has many old photos of Center Harbor and the surrounding area. It also features two old articles from the Weirs Times that document the founding, history and demise of this fine institution. The old slander that BBS refers to is partially addressed in one of the articles
Here's my question:
http://www.belknapcollege.com/upload...undershall.jpg
This buidling was one of the main campus facilities and is now slated to become home to the NH Music Festival. It previously was a restaurant. Can anyone remember the name?

There was also a LaSalette Novitiate in Center Harbor in a building that looked similar to the one above. Does anyone remember this? Was the building part of Belknap College?

LaSalette Novitiate building
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo.../lasalette.jpg

Is this building still around?

Pineedles?

Not sure about this, but is that red brick building the former Red Hill Inn which was just recently put up for sale by the N H Music Festival so the festival can move into the Silver Center for the Arts at nearby Plymouth State University?

One contributing reason why Belknap College closed is because New Hampshire is the one and only state, out of all 50, that imposes a local property tax on all schools above the 12th grade high school level.

Thanks for jogging my memory!

Student
 

I attended Belknap College after graduating from Laconia High School in 1969, 1970 and 1971. The college had a great staff. Most notably Dr E Meskys who lost his eyesight at the time. Very amazing is the fact that he would use the chalkboard as if he had no problem with his eyes.
The former Red Hill Inn, the brick building posted above was the administration building. Some classes were taught there. The new building in the back was the former library. A gym, auditorium building with classroooms underneath, located on the bottom of the hill below the admin building, was torned down. A former cow barn was located on the lower left hand corner of the property were classrooms. Buildings surrounding the barn were classrooms, book store, and student union building.

In Center Harbor, most of the buildings that houses the students were torned down. The Coe House was the former women dorm. The old building to the very right of the mall EM Heath is in was a dorm. The bus rides between the upper and lower campus was quite a thrill trip. Especially when it is snowing out.

My dad use to transport milk for Weeks Diary in Laconia in the '50's and early 60's. I remember stopping at the BC barn for milk. It use to be the Dane farm, a beautiful piece of property in the day.

Not trying to take anything away from the students who attended, but that's along the lines of what I heard when I was young.

I remember one of the students taking us up to the observatory one night. It was the first time I had been able to look through a big telescope. I thought it was pretty cool.

Founders Hall
 

Some pictures of Founders Hall aka Red Hill Inn, Dane Estate. Around 1963

Baker House
 

One of the coed dorms. Yesterday and today

Center harbor Square
 

Around 1963. The fountain would be to the right of where the picture was taken. We are looking up the road to Red Hill Inn. The two buildings behind the corner house were dorms. One of them was the campus cafeteria.

History
 

Interesting reading about Center Harbor

http://www.uvm.edu/histpres/memories...bor/index.html

The Founding of Belknap College
 

THE FOUNDING OF BELKNAP COLLEGE


Dr Royal M. Frye and Dr, Virginia Brigham, who was related to Dr. Frye, where in residence at THE COLLEGE OF ADVANCED SCIENCE in Canaan New Hampshire when I first met them. Although Dr. Frye was the head of the college the financial head of the institution was mismanaging things. Three parents that were note worthy got involved to help solve all these problems. After discussions with Dr. Frye too help unravel and institute proper practices they flew in from various states afar and met with the key person who controlled that school. The out come was very dismal.

Involved in that meeting were the parents of David, John, and me [Tom]. We were just students seeking to obtaining various degrees under the very famous and highly dedicated and qualified staff. Collectively, these instructors had obtained many outstanding degrees and personal achievements as established in books like WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA. One example was Dr. Tracy who was F.D.R.'S ghostwriter. The parents were David ????? [Please excuse that I lack access to this man's last name] [Vice President and CEO of GE], Mr. John Woodbridge [Vice President and CEO of Pan American World Airlines], and Mr. Warren Clark Devitt [CEO and President of Great Lakes Coal Company] who were our respective fathers.

After that unsuccessful meeting the parents involved conferred with the three of us students and our desires. Then they pledged support to create another institution with Dr. Frye as the unfettered head of the institution. Several of the teachers were also interested in becoming part of that fledgling institution. With in just a few weeks, after much diligent work on the part of our parents and the guidance of other friends we all became a part of the new institution, BELKNAP COLLEGE, that was soon up and running at a full head of steam. One might think that GOD almighty was in charge because what seemed to be an impossible situation became a fully developed college with staff, financial backing, and additional instructors of note in a historical amount of time. Help was also coming forth from a number of very well know famous people. Then due to Dr. Frye's status we had almost immediate arrangements to issue valid college degrees. This was because of Dr. Frye's prominence at Boston University and his influential acceptance by the University of New Hampshire.

One of the key physical requirements to achieve qualifications to give degrees was to have a proper established library. The activity to achieve that status was literally miraculously achieved by the existing student body, parents, friends, and staff. All were caught up in a specific loyalty that was of extreme dedication. This was so much so that each of the three initial noted students above awaited and became established with Belknap College degrees rather than the option of having them issued from the other two other institutions noted above.

Loyalty was so fierce that a locale Judge, Dan Fleetham, in Canaan New Hampshire, that was loosely associated with the other college we departed from was encouraged to leave his present job and businesses to join the staff. This included departing from a family home, which was also a bed and breakfast, and his profession as a judge. He became the Dean Of Men. Many others also sacrificed in many ways including physical renovation and much, much, more.

Many of us, came to realize that at this juncture in life prominent the significance of both Dr. Brigham and Dr. Frye as much more than just mentors in education. Dr. Frye was more like a grandfather to many of his initial students and many others that followed. Dr Brigham was likewise a supportive member akin to a family matron. My last meeting with Dr. Frye, while on vacation, was some years after graduating from Belknap. I parked my car in front of his home in the Center Harbor downtown area. Then as I approached the house he literally came running to me from out of the house with exuberant greetings. He was thrilled to see me, as he was with many of his graduates. He warmly expressed a welcoming far beyond what was the norm for people in their upper eighties. This immediately also brought remembrance to mind that even at 82 years he use to run up and down stairs two steps at a time out distancing those many years younger than him as he also did during this reunion. However, most importantly, he continually lived a life with a smile, regardless of the challenges that were presented to him.

Probably the most important gift to all student's is that he truly cared to listen to others and present practical optimistic solutions in a peace and joy about all of life's challenges. He saw not problems, but solutions of great optimistic possibilities, and even though he truly cared for people, and loved LIFE, his deep down prayerful concerns for others, in general, always prevailed. Whether things were of nature, the physical universe, music, as well as all of GOD'S creation, Royal acknowledged they were wrought by THE MASTER CREATOR'S TOUCH.
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Great historical information
 

A very personal and wide-ranging history on the founding of Belknap College. Many thanks for sharing with us...impressive! I do know that Belknap alums appear to be a closely-knit group and have extremely positive things to say about their years spent at Belknap, and a deep respect for their faculty & college administrators. Belknap College also has a website with lots of interesting photos and historical information.

Thanks Broadhopper...great pics!

Dr Carl Marshall
 

A well known and respected history professor and I believe one of the trustees passed away last week. He resided on Dane Road and for a time a selectman of Center Harbor. May he rest in peace.

RIP...

The college campus was where the current Immaculate Conception Apostolic School is.... correct?

I understand that the school will be closing at the end of this school year as well; I wonder what will occupy the campus next?

http://www.icasnh.org/home.html
see color photo of this building on the website
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo.../lasalette.jpg
this formerly was the old LaSalette Novitiate. Was it part of Belknap College at one time....Broadhopper?

No, never part of Belknap. we lived just up the hill in early 60's. It was part of Lasalette from some time in the 50's to mid 70's, before that I believe it belonged to the Danes'

JeffatSquam is correct. The history of the Dane's estate compromise most of the history of Center Harbor. If someone wants to research the Dane history and write it here, it will be interesting read.

It's a magnificent building nonetheless. I'd love a tour of it sometime!

224 Dane Rd, Center Harbor is for sale, asking about 2.5-mil .... is dis da big house of what's left of da Dane Estate .....duh....tink it maybe is dis! ....dunno? ....attn: BoSox slugger David Ortiz .....need a country house with 7-bathrooms, 28-acres, and a big view?

Interesting memory of Belknap. In 1973 i was offered a teaching position and the asst dean of business at Belknap . I had never been to the lakes region . Thought it was nice but the salary was like 6K per year so i stayed in mass and took a job there. Of course i think i wouldn't have even got my first paycheck before they were bankrupt. The good news is we did like the area and bought a second home and the rest is history

Some wish to rewrite history.
Some look back on time with nostalgia.
Fine.

Belknap College was a real college.
Granted.

But it was set up to profit from the Vietnam War.
There are a few still around whose names will remain anonymous.
A pair of brothers owned a local establishment. After "graduating" from Belknap College. I knew both brothers from childhood.

I recall stopping in a rented building on College Road. while one of the brothers was living there attending Belknap College. Bunch of guys and some gals. While there another Belknap College student shows up. Wearing an old trench coat. And he asked if anybody wanted anything. He was asked what does he have. He opened his trench coat and all sorts of tablets, weeds, etc. in little baggies in various quantities. All for sale. That gentleman still lives in the area and is now a "fine upstanding" citizen of the area.

Yes, we do look back on history with nostalgia. And some enhance history also.

Times were simpler then weren't they? And times were also innocent back then, right?

Be kind to history. Do not burst anyone's bubble of the good old days.

Every time I see that "historical" marker in Center Harbor, I just laugh.

Belknap College
 

Belknap College was established before the Vietnam War started. Your story line about the college profiting from the war is urban legend.

Nostalgia is wonderful.
Dream of the good old days if you wish. Those innocent times.

“On November 06, 1998, after an extensive review of qualifying criteria, the Department of Defense (DoD) officially lists American deaths in Vietnam from November 1, 1955 – which, in other words, could be now considered as the start date of the Vietnam War or Vietnam conflict, to be precise.”

LINK

Yes, in 1998 they changed the "official" dates. In my experience, the draft, in '69, was the moment the major antiwar sentiment, and "draft-dodging," began.

Besides, why are you so hell-bent on this critical notion?

As one who graduated from HS in 1963...
 

... and had one classmate in my class die within two years of our graduation, and two classmates in the class (64)behind me who also died within 2-3 years of their graduation, I assure you that Viet Nam was very real in the 60's.

Personally, I dropped out of college in December 1966, entered the Air Force Reserves in Dec 1966 and entered active duty in March 1967. Two weeks after I entered the Reserves, I received a notice from Selective Service saying that the had a spot for me and to report to Boston Army Base in January. After a quick trip to the Draft Board in Wakefield MA, I received a "disregard our previous communication" letter. Phew!:)

I can't comment on why Belknap College was founded, but I can assure you that Viet Nam was very real for many years before 1969;).

It was, but until the draft there was no "need" to find a way out, right?

Hope this clears up things up about the draft. The ending date of the draft coincidentally is the same date as the ending date of Belknap College.

“Conscription in the United States, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the federal government on three occasions. The third incarnation of the draft came into being in 1940 through the Selective Training and Service Act. It was the country's first peacetime draft.[1] From 1940 until 1973.”

LINK

True, the US had advisors in Nam from 1950. Ground troops were not committed until March 8, 1965 when the 9th Marines went ashore near DaNang. Boys who did not want to go really did not have to sweat it much until the lottery was established 5 years later.

The draft was in place all thru the 1960's . The lottery formaized a process nation wide . I know because i initially had a deferrment for a job in 1969 and then got a very high number in the lottery. . I think many coleges had students who went to theri school to get deferments

I agree
 

I agree -- having served as a combat medic with a med vac " dust off " unit

It was real -- very real -- and it was 50 years ago

Both my parents worked at the college from almost the beginning to end, dad did carpentry and maintenance and mom cleaned the houses.

I was young back then but remember it pretty well. There were several houses used as dorms and each one had a person or couple living there as adult supervision. Don't remember all the names but a few have stuck.

Let me tax my brain a little.

A little ways up Bean Road on the right was Baker house. Ernie Tatro and his wife were the caretakers; pretty sure he worked at the school too, maybe as a bus driver. I think the second house from the corner of Bean Road was Rains house; Winifred Hardy was the house mother there. The Garnet Inn was known as Kale House and was also the cafeteria.

The Coe house was the female dorm and was attached to the maintenance shop and the barn where the rowing sculls were stored.

The local policeman was Art Egar, everyone called him double bubble because of the blue lights on the car.

My dad worked with Earl Wing, Bob Judge and his dad Pop Judge. They fixed and built things. Most notably a library up on the hill sort of behind the main office building; it's still there as far as I know. Their boss was Dan Fletham, who was also a part time judge.

I'll try digging thru some stuff for old pictures but cameras were a rare thing to have around back then.

Reunion
 

There is an all class reunion this weekend. The tentative schedule is a meet and greet at Canoe (Longwood Farms) on Friday night starting at 6 PM. Appetizers with a cash bar.

Saturday afternoon will be a cocktails and dinner party at Lavinia's (Coe House)
Saturday night get together at The Mug in Meredith.

I hope you guys have DD's :)

And it says honorable.

1966 Belknap Alumna
 

I am a new member of the forum and very much enjoying this discussion. My husband and I have just purchased a cottage on Whortleberry Island, where we are permanent summer residents.

As a female I can tell you I did not enroll at Belknap to avoid the draft. I was attending UMass Amherst, but not liking it as it was large and impersonal. I had attended a small high school (Westwood, MA) and missed the personal engagement with teachers. I had a summer job as a counselor at Girl Scout Camp Treasure Island (1963?) when I heard an announcement on the radio about the new Belknap College. With its small size and impressive faculty, it sounded like the place for me, so I transferred, and it turned out to be a good decision. Studies were challenging, but classes interesting and teachers dedicated. I majored in Psychology, and got my BA in 1966. My high score on the Graduate Record Exam removed any concern that Belknap's curriculum was sub-standard. My husband also graduated the same year with a BS in Physics.

Many of the students, including the guy I eventually married, had transferred from the College of Advanced Science in Canaan, NH in order to follow Dr. Brigham and Dr. Frye when they formed the new Belknap College. The posted story in this forum of the behind-the-scenes financial and logistic hurdles jumped to bring the college to life was really interesting to me. Brought back a lot of memories and fuller appreciation of the dedication of those involved.

Greetings to all other Belknap Alums!

Welcome to the Forum, and to island living. I have a cousin who graduated from Belknap College, and went on to a career in meteorology.

guessing you mean Bill Hovey

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nS1nwfRUaaU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS1nwfRUaaU

Welcome to the Forum
 

Lakerider

I attended Belknap College from 1969 to closing. What a wild ride that was as rumors of closing put all of us on edge!

I started with physics classes with Edmund Meskys, he is with us in Laconia.
I ended up a semester shy of graduating and was able to transfer almost all of my credits to PSC to graduate.

We have annual reunions, posted at Belknap College website http://www.belknapcollege.com/

The is also a FB page 'Belknap College'.

For those who remembered Bill Hovey, he is ranked high among the old school meteorologists: http://old-school-boston.blogspot.co...from-back.html

Reunion
 

Broadhopper,
I'll watch for news of a Belknap reunion. I see the one last year was in October. It would be fun to meet up with later students to hear how the college developed.

I remember Mr. Meskys, although I never took one of his classes. My husband did, though. Dr. Sterling Tracy (English) and Dr. Noel Paradise (Psychology) were two of my favorites.

BTW, it's Lakeflier, not Lakerider. I fly a Lake Amphibian airplane.

Lake Amphib
 

I am good friends of Armand and Shirley as well as Bruce and Katie. Flown in Lakes many times. Great aircraft!

Found this tucked into a book. That's my dad in the middle, Harland Boulton.

I know I have at least a few more pictures of the Belknap days but have not run across them yet.

Found this stuff, all originals. Not sure what to do with them; shoving back into a box seems like a waste. Who would care?

check the pdf links at the bottom too.

Center Harbor Historical Society
 

Collects all things Belknap College. You may also want to post on the Belknap college website or Facebook page.

thanks. I emailed the guy running belknapcolledge.com and he told me they are putting together an archive at the historical society. Oddly the historical society is the logical thing but it never occurred to me to start there

Rev Dr Miller Lovett of Spindle Point
 

Former business professor at BC.

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/commu...ller-lovett-94

Lots of History Here!
 

My uncle was a graduate of Belknap College. I have also visited the campus quite a bit after it no longer served as a college. My mother was the box office admin for NH Music Festival, which was located there for a number of years. The buildings are beautiful. I have a suspicion the big house up on the hill is haunted... :)
It seems not many people realize it was a college. I have had a lot of people ask me what the place used to be and they all seem intrigued when I tell them it used to be a college.

Finally got around to dropping off the stuff I mentioned above at the historical society. While I was there they asked me to show this picture to my mom because they have no idea who it is. Apparently they are pretty confident it is Belknap related but no name. It's a pretty large painting, maybe 30 inches tall. Would almost have to be a benefactor or some other big shot. Mom did not recognize.


no matter what I do it will not stand up straight.