Click here for detailed information about Sunapee from city-data.com…

Sunapee is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,055 at the 2000 census. Sunapee is home to part of Lake Sunapee. The town includes the village of Georges Mills.

Like many other towns, this one went through name changes before its incorporation in 1781: “Saville”, “Corey’s Town”, and then “Wendell”, for one of the Masonian Proprietors, John Wendell. The name “Sunapee” was substituted for “Wendell” by the legislature in 1850. The town, Lake Sunapee and Mount Sunapee share the name which comes from the Algonquian Indian words “suna” meaning “goose”, and “apee”, meaning “lake”. The Indians called the area “Goose Lake” because it was a favorite spot of wild geese.

Sunapee, 2005

The town has long been a popular tourist destination. The major attraction was the pristine lake, once surrounded by a number of grand hotels. Lake Sunapee is the only lake in New Hampshire with three working lighthouses, built in the 1890s and maintained by the Lake Sunapee Protective Asscociation. The town was the birthplace of the rock band, Aerosmith.

Click here for in-depth City-Data.com data…

 
HISTORY

In 1753, the Masonian Proprietors of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, granted the area now called New London as “Heidelberg”. Although it appears on some New Hampshire maps, the township was never settled, and the 1753 grant lapsed into default.

In 1773, roughly the same area was awarded as the “Alexandria Addition” to a new group of speculators, who had previously been granted the adjacent township of Alexandria. These proprietors were led by Jonas Minot of Concord, Massachusetts, but the others were Scotch-Irish immigrants living in Londonderry, New Hampshire. None built dwellings in the Alexandria Addition. Instead they recruited settlers to build roads, mills, schools, and a church — all increasing the value of their land holdings. Nearly all of the original settlers came from Massachusetts, either from the Amesbury area of the north shore or from the Attleboro area in the southeast. The township proprietors soon began a long, systematic process of subdividing and selling their properties at great profit.

By 1779, there were sixteen families recorded within the bounds of the Alexandria Addition, and they petitioned the General Court to incorporate as the town of “New London” — officially named after London, England, but perhaps also an acknowledgement of the Londonderry-based proprietors. The first town meeting was held on August 3, 1779.

In 1807, the northern half of New London was annexed, merged with an area called “Kearsarge Gore”, and then incorporated as the town of Wilmot, New Hampshire. In the early 1800s, there were three small additions to New London, including the village of Otterville in 1817.

Click here for more about New London from Wikipedia.org…

The purpose of this blog is to help prospective buyers gain a better understanding of the region and all it has to offer. I will be making periodic posts that provide information about towns in the area, and also provide links to sites dealing with the real estate market, market trends, investing in NH, and more importantly, why the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee Area makes such a great place to live, work, and raise a family.