The Pierce Manse: Concord Home of New Hampshire’s Only President

For six years in the 1840s, U.S. President Franklin Pierce and his family lived on Montgomery Street in the middle of Downtown Concord about two blocks away from the New Hampshire State House in a house now known as the Pierce Manse. A mere four years after leaving the Concord house, in 1852, Pierce was elected to the nation's highest office. The Pierce Manse sits on its current lot on Horseshoe Pond Lane after it was slated for demolition in 1971 as part of an urban renewal project.

Pierce was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire in 1804, the son of Revolutionary War veteran and New Hampshire Gov. Benjamin Pierce. Franklin Pierce married Jane Appleton in 1834, and was well on his way to a long political career already. Before he became president, Pierce also held seats in the New Hampshire Legislature (including speaker), the United States House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate. Jane, his wife, despised his political career and convinced him to resign his Senate seat in 1842 and move back to New Hampshire.

It was then that the Pierces moved into the manse at its original location on Montgomery Street. They lived there from 1842 to 1848, during which time Franklin Pierce served as a brigadier general in the Mexican-American War (served 1847 to 1848). Prior to his years of military service, he also had a law practice centered about Concord with his partner Asa Fowler.

The Greek-Revival house on Horseshoe Pond Lane is unique in that it’s the only house the Pierce family lived in that they also owned. The Pierce Brigade, the nonprofit group that moved the house from Montgomery Street in 1971, named the home the Pierce Manse to distinguish it from the Pierce Homestead in Hillsborough where Franklin Pierce was born and the rented home on South Main Street, where the former president died in 1869.

The Pierce Manse is open for tours by appointment from October to June each year, Thursdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. between June 14 and Labor Day, and Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. from Labor Day to October 12. The manse is an all-volunteer operation, so it asks visitors interested in touring the house from October to June to call the Pierce Brigade at 603-225-4555 three to four days in advance of their visit. This will allow the Brigade to schedule someone to meet you at the manse.

Tours include hands-on activities, primary source documents and visual clues spread throughout the house to offer a window into the life of an American family in the 1840s. There are also two school programs that last an hour each -- New Hampshire and the Presidency: The Life and Times of Franklin Pierce discusses Pierce’s accomplishments as president and his life prior to holding that office, while Life of an American Family in the 1840s deals with the pre-Civil War life of the Pierces in the manse.

There are also events held between February and October on the fourth Thursday of every month, with a full calendar available at the manse website. Events of 2011 include a discussion of songs in the 19th century, an examination of Robert Frost’s life and a talk about Victorian architecture in New Hampshire.

Franklin Pierce Manse Concord President Franklin Pierce