Farmington Town Pound

Farmington Town Pound

Farmington historic sites

Constructed in 1823 it replaced an earlier pound dating from 1802, only three years after the first town meeting. This type of structure was typically constructed in New Hampshire towns in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was used to contain stray livestock. The earliest pounds in New Hampshire were wooden structures; none of these are known to survive. Stone construction eventually became the norm. Typically pounds were of dry-laid fieldstone construction, roughly square in plan, with an opening containing a gate with a lintel above. These were simple structures built to meet a very practical requirement to formative agricultural communities. The Farmington Pound remains an important structure from the town's early agrarian period.

NW side of Pound Rd. 300 ft. north of the jct. of Ten Rod Rd., Farmington, New Hampshire
Coordinates 43°21′33″N 71°4′49″W

The Farmington Town Pound is a 40-foot-square rectangular enclosure of dry-laid random fieldstones situated in rural Farmington, New Hampshire. It was constructed in 1823 and replaced an earlier pound, probably wooden, built about 1802. The pound as it survives today is a substantial structure, whose fieldstone walls are seven-feet high and three-feet wide at the base. Along the top, the walls terminate with long granite capstones. There is a five-and-a-half-foot wide opening on the southeast side (facing Pound Road). Some of the stones have been removed, the lintel has fallen and broken into three pieces, and the wooden gate is no longer extant, but the pound is otherwise similar in appearance to the photograph which appears in the 1904 publication, Souvenir of Farmington, New Hampshire. (The presence of saplings growing on the lot was evident even in 1904.)

Town of Farmington

1993 National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/93000884.pdf

Strafford County Site on the National Register of Historic Places
http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/nh/Strafford/state.html

Farmington Historical Society

1823

Owned by the Town of Farmington.
Maintained by the Farmington Historical Society

Location

1993 National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/93000884.pdf

Strafford County Site on the National Register of Historic Places
http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/nh/Strafford/state.html

Souvenir Booklet of Farmington New Hampshire 1904
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61359842/Farmington-NH-Souvenir-Booklet-1904

Raab Family Gives Farmington Deed to Town Cattle Pound and Land
Farmington News, July 16, 1975
http://farmington.advantage-preservation.com/document/farmington-news-1975-07-16-page-1

Farmington Town Pound on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_Town_Pound

Find the Farmington Town Pound pin on Google Earth
http://www.google.com/earth/