Harrisville’s Tramp House
Preservation Over Parking
Following the town’s decision in March to close Church Alley from the Post Office to School Street, Historic Harrisville has begun developing a plan to try to improve circulation and maintain parking in that area. Many people have provided input, including more than one suggestion to “tear down that ugly little white building” between the store and St. Denis. While we understand that parking is a real concern, we want to tell the story of that building, in the hopes that we might appreciate its important role in our town’s history and help build support for finding an alternative to its removal.
Harrisville's second tramp house, which stood near the Harrisville Pond outflow across from the town boat ramp, shown here in the flood of 1938.
Before the building was moved to its location next to the General Store, it served as Harrisville’s first tramp house. With the introduction of railroads paired with economic hard times, transient paupers, or tramps, became an issue across New Hampshire. Tramps became so numerous that many towns built small, simple buildings called tramp houses, where the town's Overseer of the Poor provided tramps with overnight lodging, a meal, and firewood so they might keep warm, thereby containing the nuisance that tramps had the potential to cause.
A map of the M. Harris Woolen Mills, drawn in 1879, clearly shows the town’s first tramp house at the corner of what is now Prospect and Kadakit Streets, next to the former blacksmith shop then operated by George Tufts. This land is vacant today. The map indicates that the tramp house measured 24' 2" by 15' 3" wide and had a shingle roof. At over 360 square feet, this tramp house was larger than most, which were typically less than 200 square feet.
The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance recently listed tramp houses in New Hampshire on its "Seven to Save" list in 2023 to increase awareness of these unique, and now rare, historic buildings, reflecting an under-recognized piece of our collective history. Only seven known tramp houses remain in the state today.
The Library
In 1877, the town of Harrisville voted to create a public library. Having not yet found a suitable space for the library, in 1880 Henry Colony offered a plot of ground next to the brick store in the center of town for that purpose. At town meeting, the voters authorized the library committee to move the town’s first tramp house to the center of town and improve it for use as a library. As was common for tramp houses (but not so common for libraries), the rear part of the building was reserved for a “lock-up” or jail cell.
The circa 1909 photo of the Catholic church, library, and Winn Brothers Store below shows the tramp-house-turned-library in its new location, with additional windows and shutters, to make it more suitable to serve as the town library.
With funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Harrisville’s library was remodeled and increased in size in 1935. The building was expanded by 10 feet to the east (toward St. Denis), and an additional door and window added, mirroring those that already existed. Now having a 24' square footprint, a broad hipped roof replaced the original gable roof. Those who look closely will notice the older stone foundation under the western tramp house side of the library, contrasting with a poured concrete foundation under the eastern expansion. Underneath the building, the old portion has a limited crawl space on ledge, while the newer portion is dug out with a full-height basement to accommodate utilities (heat and electricity), which were likely added at the time of the 1935 improvements. Upstairs, the location and dimension of the interior wall confirm this building as the original tramp house, as the measurements match those on the 1879 map.
The library interior was refreshed again in 1965, when a “steady and skilled old-timer fixed up and redecorated the library room.” Then in 1967, the Congregational Society gifted the brick Vestry to the town for use as a library, and the library has been located there ever since.
Having served as the town’s library from approximately 1880 through 1967, the building then came to be used as a meeting space for the Selectmen, and a place for town records storage. Historic Harrisville now owns the building, which we refer to as the old Selectmen’s Office. In the western tramp-house side, the building houses the walk-in refrigerator, freezer, and dry storage for the General Store. When St. Denis is rehabilitated, we anticipate building public restrooms in the 1935 eastern expansion section of the building, which will support activities in the church.
