NH Historical Highway Marker commemorates Henry Ward Beecher’s open-air sermon site

The N.H. Division of Historical Resources is pleased to announce that a New Hampshire Historical Highway Marker commemorating the natural pulpit used in the late 19th century by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher has been installed just north of the intersection of Routes 3 and 302 in Twin Mountain, a long-time tourist section of the Town of Carroll.

The marker reads: 

“BEECHER’S PULPIT
 
“A glacial boulder overlooking Twin Mountain Village, known as ‘Beecher’s Pulpit,’ since the 1870s is named for the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. A Congregationalist clergyman, abolitionist, proponent of women’s suffrage and brother to author Harriet Beecher Stowe, he came to the White Mountains to escape seasonal allergies. While a guest at the Twin Mountain House, located near this site, Beecher conducted sermons that sometimes drew crowds over 1,000.”

The marker was unveiled on July 8 as part of Carroll’s 250th anniversary celebration. It is the 274th marker in New Hampshire’s Historical Highway Marker program. 

Any municipality, agency, organization or individual wishing to propose a historical highway marker to commemorate significant New Hampshire places, persons or events must submit a petition of support signed by at least 20 New Hampshire residents. They must also draft the text of the marker and provide footnotes and copies of supporting documentation, as well as a suggested location for marker placement.

New Hampshire’s historical highway markers illustrate the depth and complexity of our history and the people who made it, from the last Revolutionary War soldier to contemporary sports figures to poets and painters who used New Hampshire for inspiration; from 18th-century meeting houses to stone arch bridges to long-lost villages; from factories and cemeteries to sites where international history was made. 

An interactive map of all of the state’s historical highway markers is available at the N.H. Division of Historical Resources’ website, nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov. 

The New Hampshire Historical Highway Marker program is jointly managed by the N.H. Division of Historical Resources and N.H. Department of Transportation.

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