ERITAGE WALKING TOUR When the first Boston & Maine locomotive steamed into "Coffin's Cut" in Dover on September 1, 1841, great crowds assembled here on Arch Street. Most had never seen a train before and one man was heard to remark, "You can't fool me I know there's a horse in there somewhere." N.H. had granted the B & M permission to cross into the state from Haverhill, Mass. and in 1838, Dover. voters assented to the tracks passing through their town. The Dover Gazette lobbied against it: the railroad would put men out of work who rode the stages and coasting vessels. Dover would "be turned into a town of idlers, under a tyrant's power." But quite the opposite, the railroad gave a boost to Dover's industries and employment outlook. This year's Heritage Walk area of Arch, Washington, Cushing, and Silver developed, in large part, because the railroad broadened Dover's markets. DOVER,N.H. JUNE 1990-2- 2 ARCH STREET Built on land originally belonging to the Abbott Estate, this. home, ca. 1917, has had five owners. The land was pur- chased at the turn of the century by Walter Chesley who sold it in 1903 to Charles and Adah Canney. The lot was bought in 1915 by Clarence and Ella Keyes and the house was built soon after. In 1943, Bessie Maguire paid $2500 for the property and sold it two years later to Joseph and Winifred Moore. Elton T. Vigent bought it in 1960 and sold it in 1987 to current owners, Larry and Patricia Tatro. 9 ARCH STREET In 1885, Levi Elder sold this land to Lyman Parsons, a carpenter, for $200, and by 1888 the Parsons family was living here. Lyman died in 1891, his wife Elizabeth in 1912, but the home remained in the Parsons family through daughter Myra and grandsons Leo and Bernard until 1971. It was then purchased by the Peschke family and later owned by Bernard F. Ryder. The house is now owned by an East Kingston resident. 10 ARCH STREET At one time called "the handsomest house in the city," the Abbott/Ross mansion is currently divided into apartments. The large estate was constructed ca. 1887 by Isaac F. Abbott, cashier of the Dover National Bank. Abbott was born in Dover in 1842 and started his career as a clerk at D. Lothrop's. He worked as a bookkeeper for the bank and rose to become head financial officer. When he assumed this position in 1888 Abbott's salary was $3000 per year and many locals questioned how he could afford such a magnificent house. Abbott let on that his wife's family had left her a considerable fortune. Wife Lizzie Abbott died in 1892 leaving Isaac to care for his children Bert, Cushman, and Clara. Abbott continued work at the Dover National Bank and the home's expenses continued to rise. One newspaper account of the time said, "The buildings outside are substantial but do not give any indication of the prince-like furnishings inside. Elegant furniture, costly draperies, carpets that give back no sound after a footfall, make every roam handsome in the extreme." Then in 1895, Dover was stunned. State bank examiners discovered major discrepancies in the bank's accounting rec- ords. Over $80,000 was missing and Isaac Abbott became the=3- chief suspect. Headlines in the newspaper speculated that it was the bank's money, not Lizzie's supposed inheritance, that had built the mansion. On January 14, 1895, just before offi- cers could arrest him, Isaac Abbott went to an upstairs bedroom and fatally shot himself. The Dover National Bank was in dire financial straits. Able to pay its panicked depositors only $.50.-60 on the dollar, the bank went into receivorship and soon closed. In 1901, an Isaac Abbott estate plan was devised to recoup some of the embezzled funds. The plan showed a new street to be developed here perpendicular to Arch Street, and twenty new house lots in "Abbott Field." But this plan never material- ized and the home was sold in 1907 to Lincoln K. Ross who owned a ladies' furnishings and corset store at 376 Central Ave. After Ross' death in the mid-40s, his widow Grace lived here to the late '60s. Present owner is Alfred Catalfo, Jr. 20 ARCH STREET In 1913, George Varney, owner of a drug store on Wash- ington Street, purchased several lots in "Abbott Field" and built this large home. Varney had been a prominent local merchant for 40 years, a member of the State Legislature, the Dover School Committee, and a Public Library trustee. He retired in 1919 at age 65 and died in 1920. Son Lucius E. varney, a patent attorney in New York City, inherited the home with his mother, Helen. Mrs. Varney died in 1933, and Lucius in 1955. In 1956, Irene S, Varney, administrator of the estate, sold the home to Alfred Catalfo, Jr. It remains the Catalfo home today. 35 ARCH STREET This New Englander was constructed about 1867 by Albert A. Pike, a shoe manufacturer. After his death in 1899, his daughter Frances sold the home to Frank P. Shepard who re- sold the property to Cora L. Burleigh. In 1924 it was pur- chased again, this time by Herbert C. Hodgdon, a metalworker. The home was inherited in the late 1940s by his daughter Zilla M. Potterton. Mrs. Potterton sold much of the property acreage for house lots ca. 1947 and 1954. Present owner is Dorothy Crawford.