On May 30, 1886, the cornerstone of the Soldiers Memorial Building on North Park Street was laid, initiating construction of the remarkable building designed by Lebanon architect Ferdinand Davis. It was an important milestone for the architect; it had taken five years to raise enough money to start construction. More importantly, however, the architect was a veteran of the Civil War, and the Soldiers Memorial — believed to be the first such building in New Hampshire — was built to honor him and his fellow veterans.
Ferdinand Davis, 1880 (Lebanon Historical Society)
Ferdinand Davis was born in Maine in 1840 and as a young man trained as a carpenter. He first came to Lebanon at the age of 18 in 1858; two years later, he enlisted in the Union Army and fought in the 7th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment. After the war’s conclusion Davis returned to Lebanon and married Eliza Thompson. Though carpentry work must have been plentiful in Lebanon’s post-war industrial boom, Davis wasn’t content with his line of work, and he eventually spent a year in New York City studying architecture.
The Soldiers Memorial may have been Ferdinand Davis’s highest profile work in Lebanon, but it wasn’t his first or only design in town. In 1881, he drew up plans for the Whipple Block at the corner of West Park Street and Hanover Street (today the pedestrian mall). That same year he designed a state-of-the-art mill for Frank Kendrick and the Mascoma Flannel Company — Lebanon’s first woolen mill, and the only one to survive the 1887 fire that destroyed most of the central village. Davis’s mill has been substantially enlarged over the years, but it still stands as part of the Rivermill Complex on Mechanic Street.
By 1884 Davis was designing buildings outside of Lebanon’s borders, including the Union Block in Bradford, Vermont, and an elaborate Queen Anne house for Horace Pease in Hartford, Vermont. Union Block, Bradford’s The United Opinion extolled, was “one of the handsomest and most commodious buildings to be found in this section of the state.”
Ferdinand Davis’s growing architectural success in the Upper Valley abruptly ended in 1887, however, when Ferdinand and Eliza moved to Pomona, California. At the time, Pomona was home to fewer than 4,000 residents (roughly equivalent to Lebanon’s population), and the town wouldn’t be incorporated until the following year. The rapid growth of southern California at the beginning of the 20th century quickly made Pomona an attractive place to be, however, and Davis’s architectural career soared in his new community.
Lebanon Soldiers Memorial, 1911 (Lebanon Historical Society)
Only two years after settling Pomona, Davis designed the city’s First National Bank. His architectural style and talent must have suited the region, and Davis produced a bevy of buildings throughout southern California over the next three decades. Among his many designs were the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (1895), Currier House (1907), Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten (1907), Orange Grove Meeting House (1908), Pomona Masonic Lodge (1909), Pomona City Stables (1909), Pilgrim Congregational Church (1910), Pomona Ebell Clubhouse (1910), and several residences in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Many of these structures remain striking and historically significant buildings, and several are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ferdinand Davis passed away in Pomona at the age of 81. Upon his death, The Pomona Progress claimed that Davis “drew plans for every business block on the north side of Second Street from Garey Avenue to Main Street.” Nearly two decades later, the paper further observed that “more of the public buildings, office structures, and residences of the valley were designed by him than by any other man.” While the same cannot be said of Davis’s work in Lebanon, it’s hard to imagine three more significant structures to carry on his legacy in Lebanon than the Whipple Block, the Mascoma Flannel Mill, and the Soldiers Memorial.
