Avery Dam
A summertime photo of the Avery dam. Taken August 8, 2023, during a very rainy summer.
It’s interesting to compare the modern photos, above, with a postcard nearly a century older, below.
According to an 1816 map, the falls at this location dropped 9 feet 9 inches.
The Mill Street Pedestrian Footbridge crosses the Winnipesaukee River just downstream of the Avery dam, from the Belknap Mill Plaza to Union Avenue. The steel and concrete footbridge opened on November 13, 1958, replacing an earlier wooden bridge. (The wooden bridge had carried vehicular traffic from Mill Street to Union Ave until September 26, 1949, and then only pedestrians until March, 1956.) Mill Street no longer exists, having been removed during Laconia’s Urban Renewal program of the early 1970s. The steel footbridge is in poor condition. Efforts are being made to obtain federal funding for a replacement.
The footbridge is seen at a time of very low water flow through the dam. The two teens would not dare to stand where they are during normal water flow.
The footbridge from the Union Avenue side.
The footbridge from the Belknap Mill Plaza side.
The powerhouse of the Avery dam. Its brick construction seems to indicate that it was built at the same time as the historic mills on the opposite side of the Winnipesaukee river, but the hydroelectric plant was built relatively recently, in 1985.
