Allenstown opened the doors of its new town hall on Wednesday, resuming municipal functions that had been paused since Oct. 23 when the former town hall closed.
Though staff and contracted movers began physically transferring town materials only a few days ago, the new town hall’s opening is the culmination of a process that had long been in motion.
In 2024, the town’s elementary and middle schools relocated to the newly constructed Allenstown Community School, leaving both Allenstown Elementary School and the Armand R. Dupont School empty.
After drawn-out discussions regarding the fate of the buildings, town officials decided in 2025 to purchase the old elementary school, intended to house new town hall offices, pre-kindergarten classrooms, a firefighter and EMT training space and the new Allenstown Historical Society museum.
The town sold the Dupont School, formerly for middle grade classes, to the Diocese of Manchester.
Mike Frascinella, the chairman of the Allenstown Economic Development Committee, said that the new building is much more suited to the municipality’s needs.
“It’s going to be much easier to deal with different aspects of town government, registering your car or a boat or getting a dog license or something like that,” Frascinella said. “So one hopes that the town appreciates the fact that we went through this major effort to renovate the building.”
The new town hall is more conducive to electoral proceedings, too, according to Armand Verville, a longtime Allenstown resident and an assistant moderator for the upcoming elections.
In the past, he said, the town rented space from local organizations in order to host elections. After that, they transitioned to polling at Allenstown Elementary on 30 Main St. — the new town hall’s address — even though the town government was still located at 16 School St.
This meant that election officials had to move polling equipment between the two buildings.
“It was an awful lot of work, and we had to put everything in the back of a dump truck and bring it over,” Verville said.
Now, ahead of November’s elections, Allenstown has received an upgrade: the town hall has dedicated space for a polling place.
“We call it the voting room, and that’s where we’re able to dismantle all of the voting equipment. We put everything in our room, which is right there — it opens into the gymnasium,” Verville said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Verville is also the president of the Allenstown Historical Society, which will open a museum in the new town hall in the coming weeks. Verville said he has envisioned an Allenstown museum for decades.
“For me personally, it’s been 20 years in the making, so I’m very tired, but I’m very happy with what’s happening,” he said.
Of the entire project, Verville said, “It’s just going to be nice all around. It’s going to be a building that people ought to be real, real proud of.”
