Hospital Annex Added to Historic Register

The former Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital Annex. Courtesy of the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources.

The former Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital Annex has been added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places.

The state Division of Historical Resources announced the state Historical Resources Council’s action Monday in a press release.

“The Annex was built in 1927 and is the last remaining building from the Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital (MPGH) complex, which opened in 1891. Concord’s first building constructed solely for use as a hospital, MPGH was deliberately located in a working-class section of the city, where the Abbot-Downing Company and the Boston and Maine Railroad were major employers, and where there was a high concentration of both single and multi-family housing,” officials wrote.

“The Annex was intended to provide more private and semi-private rooms than were available in the main building’s wards, and its second floor served as the hospital’s maternity ward.

“Among the Annex’s distinguishing characteristics are its prominent Colonial Revival-style center entrance flanked by lantern-style lights, its fire-resistant building materials – including brick, slate and tile – and its two-story solarium at the rear of the building. Inside, the layout of patient rooms is still apparent; extra-wide doors to the rooms would have accommodated hospital gurneys.

“Various State of New Hampshire agencies have had offices in the building for forty years. The Division of Historical Resources moved there in 1991; the Division of the Arts, the Film and Television Office and Curatorial Services moved their offices to the building in 2012. All are part of the Department of Cultural Resources.”