Final decision looming to save Norris house in downtown Concord from demolition

Wedged between the Concord Food Co-op and the Bank of NH Stage on South Main Street sits a green, three-story mansion built in 1860 by then-homeowner James C. Norris.

It was constructed after Norris took ownership of the bakery next door, which baked bread for local Civil War troops from 1861 to 1865. The home was vacated after Norris’ death in the mid-1900s and has since had a long history of use from housing single women working in local factories to a beautician’s school, said developer Steve Duprey who bought the property in 2018.

The building needs to be moved or torn down to make way for a new project Duprey has planned for the site that’s already been approved by the city. The proposed multi-story building will feature an eye-catching wooden and steel exterior with a hand-painted mural on the backside of the building. Duprey expects to have a Friendly Toast restaurant and an event space as part of the plan.

Duprey was granted a demolition permit in December to take down the Norris house, but he’s continued to explore options to save it.

“Back when I applied for the demolition permit, it should have been taken down, but I offered to give the house away, plus $100,000 in moving costs,” he said.

Duprey is actively working with Geddes Building Movers of Bow to relocate the home to the intersection of Penacook and Rumford streets in Concord near the old Lincoln Financial property that he bought. He said he’s exploring a second undisclosed site that’s closer to the existing location. He called that site a “tremendous opportunity.”

“We haven’t given up hope because it’s a very important building,” Duprey said. “It would break my heart if we aren’t able to save it.”

A look through history

Norris arrived in Concord in 1847 from his hometown of Epping where he was a shoe manufacturer, according to city records. He was hired by Ebenezer Symmes, who owned the bakery and lived on the property. Norris moved in with him and was hired as a salesman in the bread, cracker and confectionery business.

In 1852 or 1853, Norris bought the bakery from Symmes, which was considered one of the largest bakeries in the state. Six years later, the bakery burned down and Norris quickly rebuilt it alongside the three-story mansion along with a stable behind the home to house the family’s horses.

He lived in the home with his wife, Marry Wiggin, and their four children, Mabelle, Ethel, Oria and James Jr., who took over the family business in 1875.

During the Civil War, Norris converted the bakery from producing basic flour products to selling hard-tack and molasses cookies. It supplied two tons of bread to military camps each day throughout the duration of the war, according to city records.

The bakery operated well into the 1920s before it was purchased by Wenceslaus Cantin, a successful Manchester contractor, who turned the business into what would become the Concord Theatre. His daughter, Theresa, successfully owned and operated the theater for decades until 1994. It was the first and only women-run, independent movie theater in the country for many years.

In 1998, four years after the theater closed, Arthur Azvine bought the property when he learned that it was at risk of being torn down.

Around the same time, the bakery closed in 1921, the Norris family added a brick edition to the back of the home that became the first YMCA in the city.

Between the 1920s and the 1980s, the main part of the home housed single women working in local factories and served as a beautician school, independently of each other.

In the early 1990s, the home was bought by Families in Transition, a nonprofit founded in 1991 in response to the growing number of homeless individuals and families in the greater Concord area and throughout the state.

The former theater property remained in the Aznine family until 2017 when Duprey bought both properties. The theater property was redeveloped and sold to the Capitol Center for the Arts the following year and in 2019, the Bank of NH Stage opened.

“I bought it because Families in Transitions were running their clothing store there and it wasn’t a successful location for them,” Duprey said. “I have not done any sort of preservation or restoration of the home but I have kept it safe despite a few homeless break-ins.”

Eyeing a move

The decision to try and save the home has delayed Duprey’s plans for the site for several years, he said.

“They’ve looked at it and it’s very movable in sections,” Duprey said. “There are different sections to the home and I want to at least save the front section which has 90% of the original architectural features.”

If the home is demolished, Duprey plans to save as many of the original features and include them in his plans for a Nashville-themed restaurant where the current stables are, he said.

But he said he hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“It’s been a labor of love and a lot of expense to keep that building standing for three years and not used,” Duprey said, calling the potential move an “intricate and fussy little project.”

He expects a decision will be made in the next few weeks.