It’s been nearly a century since the novelist Willa Cather sat in the autumn shade of Grand Monadnock near Jaffrey Center and penned the first lines of her landmark My Antonia. Long after the last chapter was written and Cather laid to rest in Jaffrey’s Old Burial Ground, authors, artists, and adventurers of all ages continue to claim this tiny mountain hideaway as their own, drawn by its rustic simplicity, ornate architecture, and stunning sightlines.
Settled in 1758 and named 15 years later by Governor John Wentworth for George Jaffrey, a member of a prominent Portsmouth family, Jaffrey prospered early on as a mill town, powered by the rushing water of the Contoocook River – a prosperity expressed in the lavish public buildings like the soaring 1775 Town Meetinghouse, erected during the Battle of Bunker Hill, that still grace its tree-lined roads. By the mid 19th century, the introduction of rail travel elevated tourism as Jaffrey’s top industry, luring hordes of hikers and escapists seeking refuge from the noise and pressure of city life. Grand Monadnock’s slopes would be scaled and chronicled by the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Rudyard Kipling, and Ralph Waldo Emerson who’d commit his experience to verse in the 1845 poem “Monadnoc.”
While the last train has long since breezed through, Jaffrey remains a can’t-miss for scores of leaf-lookers and nature-seekers precisely for remaining as it’s always been. From the 132,000 hikers who each year make Grand Monadnock one of America’s favorite summits to the annual August fireworks at Silver Ranch airport (New England’s largest display), tourists and locals have never allowed Jaffrey to fall off the map. Taking in the town’s historic landmarks is a must, from the Meetinghouse (once dubbed the town’s “dearest possession”), to the 1833 Melville Academy museum, the Buddies Monument to WWI soldiers on Main Street, and the Civic Center, a local institution and hub of life since 1966, where the historical society is housed, and artists of local and regional renown display work in multiple galleries.
Finally, no visit to Jaffrey is complete without a stop at Mindfull Books, John Sepe’s and Martha Dawson’s friendly – and eclectic – bookstore-meets-antiques-shop-meets-concert-hall-meets-speakeasy, housed in a converted barber shop and bowling alley and home to some of the region’s rarest reads and unique gatherings.
