This is an excerpt from The Monitor Weekly episode accompanying our series, ‘Christa’s Legacy: Concord’s pioneer woman, the world’s teacher.’ Listen to the episode above and follow the walking tour below to experience living history.
Bare trees surround White Park in Concord. Branches heavy with snow reach skyward like rawboned fingers.
New Hampshire is frigid and serene this time of year. Low temperatures made this the first winter in recent memory when the White Park pond opened for public skating before January first. The wind whistles and bites at bare skin.
Somewhere among this silent platoon of trees are seven living memorials honoring the crew of the Challenger space shuttle. What little we know about these seven trees comes from a UPI article published in April of 1986, three months after the space shuttle Challenger exploded mid-air, extinguishing the lives of Concord teacher Christa McAuliffe and her six crewmates.
The story is short, it doesn’t say much: “Three students from the Dewey Elementary School shoveled dirt to secure the last tree, a white birch, after workers had anchored the other trees at separate locations Thursday. Seven different types of trees were planted in a corner of White Park, near the quiet neighborhood where McAuliffe lived with her husband, Steven, and two children.”
Later, the article offers the historical context that became this episode’s reason for existence. It tells the reader: “McAuliffe was chosen last summer as the nation’s first ordinary citizen to travel into space. She died with six other astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, when the ship exploded 73 seconds after liftoff.”
It’s been 40 years since that tragedy.
You’re listening to the Monitor Weekly. If you’re a returning listener, you’ll note that this episode is a change of pace from our typical programming. It’s part of a special project honoring Christa McAuliffe’s life and legacy.
In this epsiode, we’ll visit locations of significance, places that honor Christa McAuliffe here in Concord, and we’ll hear from people who’ve played a role in preserving her legacy. Follow along our walking tour below.
The Monitor’s Christa McAuliffe walking tour
New Hampshire State House
107 North Main St., Concord, New Hampshire
Christa McAuliffe is the first woman in New Hampshire history to be honored with a statue on the State House lawn. Created by Idaho sculptor Benjamin Victor, the 8-foot-tall bronze statue depicts McAuliffe in motion, walking like she did aboard the platform to the shuttle. On one side is her motto: “I touch the future; I teach.” The statue was unveiled on what would have been Christa’s 76th birthday: Sept. 2, 2024.
There, on the State House plaza near the statue, a memorial service was held for Christa on Jan. 31, 1986. To view footage from the service aired live on Channel 12 Concord and preserved by the Concord Historical Society, click here.
White Park
1 White Street, Concord, NH 03301
In April 1986, students at the Dewey Elementary School planted seven trees at White Park near Christa McAuliffe’s residence in the heart of Concord. The plantings were sponsored by the New Hampshire Arborists Association to mark Arbor Day. Charles Foley, then-principal at Concord High School, said the trees were an appropriate tribute to Christa and the Challenger crew. ‘A tree is life,’ he said. ‘Probably the closest thing to immortality is a tree.’
Reported originally by UPI, this story has been independently verified by the Monitor through the Arborists Association.
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
2 Institute Drive, Concord, NH 03301
The Discovery Center, which opened in June of 1990 as the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, is a local epicenter of space education. The museum hosts exhibits on everything from spacecrafts to a simulated future lunar colony, and it is home to an observatory and planetarium that orient our eyes and minds toward the sky. In addition to memorializing Christa and taking up her educational mantle, the Discovery Center also honors New Hampshire astronaut Alan Shepard. The Discovery Center is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Concord High School
170 Warren Street, Concord, NH 03301
Christa was a social studies teacher at Concord High School at the time of her selection as the first Teacher in Space. She led a law course and created an American Women’s History curriculum that is still taught there today.
At Christa McAuliffe Day in Concord, held in August of 1985, Christa told a crowd: “When I’m up in that shuttle, and I’m not going to be teaching at Concord High School, I want everybody working real hard to make education what it should be in this country.” To hear her full remarks, aired live on Channel 12 Concord and preserved by the Concord Historical Society, click here.
Christa McAuliffe School
17 N Spring Street, Concord, NH 03301
The Christa McAuliffe School is the product of Concord’s elementary school consolidation effort of 2012, when three new elementary schools were built over a period of 18 months. The McAuliffe School stands where the Kimball School used to be — the same school where Christa’s son, Scott McAuliffe, attended.
In 1986, as Christa prepared for the launch of the Challenger, Scott’s classmates from the Kimball School followed him to Cape Canaveral for a week-long trip that involved visiting Disney World, touring the Kennedy Space Center and watching the launch. Their former school now stands in homage to Christa McAuliffe and bears her name.
Blossom Hill Cemetery
207 North State Street, Concord, New Hampshire | Block M, Lot 51L, Grave 2
Christa McAuliffe’s epitaph remembers her as a pioneer woman. “She was curious and sought to learn who we are and what the universe is about. She relied on her own judgment and moral courage to do right,” it reads. All victims of the Challenger disaster are honored with a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. NASA worked with their family members to erect the memorial, which depicts Christa and her fellow crew members on a bronze plaque.