File:Dunbar House, Keene NH (2512252810).jpg

Dunbar House, Keene NH
CREATOR
SUBJECT
Houses - NH - Keene
Homes - NH - Keene
Restaurants - NH - Keene
DESCRIPTION
Photo of the Marrion lunch business (left hand house, not the railroad building.)
This large house on Main Street was built in 1785 by Asa Dunbar on a lot which had been the most northerly of the house lots when Upper Ashuelot was laid out in 1733. Asa, formerly a minister from Salem Mass., became a lawyer in Keene the same year the house was built. He died in 1787 at age 41 and was the town clerk at that time.
His wife Mary supported her five small children by opening the house as a tavern. Her youngest child, Cynthia, born in this house, became the mother of Henry David Thoreau.
From 1894 to 1910 it was a lunch business operated by Peter G. Marrion. At first the customers were served through the windows while standing under a canopy over a raised platform. By Sept.1894, the business was so prosperous, the interior was opened and customers sat around a counter. In the picture, the sign under the canopy says "Hot Coffee and Sandwiches". The railroad station was not used after 1910.
The house was at times a boarding house, a lunch business frequented by Rudyard Kipling, the Crystal Restaurant, and for many years was a restaurant called Henry Davids. It is now Margueritas, a Mexican restaurant.
PUBLISHER
Keene Public Library
DATE DIGITAL
20071101
DATE ORIGINAL
1894-1910?
RESOURCE TYPE
photographs
FORMAT
image/jpg
RESOURCE IDENTIFIER
hsykhse044
RIGHTS MANAGMENT