Monadnock Villages Loop

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Keene

   Keene has the widest Main Street you are likely to see in New England, and the town is justifiably proud of it. The street is broad enough that it is often described as the widest paved main street in America, and with a white-steepled church at one end and the old brick storefronts down both sides, it creates a feeling of space and leisure unusual in a New Hampshire town. The Ashuelot River winds through the area, and Keene State College keeps the downtown lively.

   Read the complete Keene write-up.

2. 2. Jaffrey

   Jaffrey sits at the foot of Mount Monadnock, the bare granite dome that rises from the forest of southwestern New Hampshire and has a claim to being among the most climbed mountains in the world. At 3,165 feet it is not tall, but it stands alone above the plain, and the name has even become a geological term for any isolated hill left standing by erosion. From the road, as you approach from Jaffrey Center or from the south, it looks bigger than it is, a grey dome sitting above the trees.

   Read the complete Jaffrey write-up.

3. 3. Peterborough

   Peterborough is a small town with a large literary reputation. In 1907 the composer Edward MacDowell and his wife Marian founded an artists' colony here on their farm, and the MacDowell Colony has hosted writers, composers and painters ever since. Thornton Wilder wrote much of Our Town here, and Peterborough is widely believed to be the model for his fictional Grover's Corners; Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and many others have worked in the woodland studios. The place still has the air of a village where people read and listen.

   Read the complete Peterborough write-up.

4. 4. Harrisville

5. 5. Dublin

   Dublin is the highest town in New Hampshire's Monadnock region, and the village stretches along the shore of Dublin Lake with Mount Monadnock looming on its southern side. At roughly 460 metres, it is cool even in summer, and the air has a freshness you notice getting off the bike. The lake is deep and clear, and it has been a summer haunt for painters and writers since the late nineteenth century; the Dublin Art Colony drew artists such as Abbott Thayer, and Mark Twain spent a summer here in 1905 and 1906 and described the view of the mountain with predictable enthusiasm.

   Read the complete Dublin write-up.

6. 6. Back to Keene

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Keene write-up.