Berlin is a town in the Great North region of New Hampshire.
Berlin is a great destination for those who want to enjoy the
outdoors. Outdoor activities available in this town of 9,400
(2020) residents include fishing and paddling on the
Androscoggin River and miles of ATV trails in popular Jericho
Mountain State Park.
Located on the edge of New
Hampshire's northernmost White Mountains, the town was once
known as "The Town in the Trees." Berlin, New Hampshire grew as
a city on the backs of the logging, paper, and pulp industries,
and at one time was the center of these industries in the United
States.
At one time Berlin's mills hummed, logging timber
was washed off the Great North Woods, and logs clogged the
Androscoggin River, but Berlin is no longer the industrial
center it once was. The city of Berlin today is a bit quieter,
with less than half the population of 20,000 at its peak in
1930.
A vast ATV trail network can take you from the city
of Berlin to Gorham, Milan, Errol, Groveton, Stratford,
Colebrook, and many other communities in North County, New
Hampshire, as far as Pittsburgh.
Moffett House, 119 High St (at Emery St), ☏ +1 603 752-7337. Tues-Sat
noon-4pm. Former home of Dr. and Mrs. Moffett, two-story building with
art works and books on display. Free.
Jericho Mountain State Park,
298 Jericho Lake Rd, ☏ +1 603-752-4758. Jericho Mountain State Park is a
popular New Hampshire state park among ATV enthusiasts. The park has an
extensive trail network for ATV riding that connects to the extensive
upstate riding trail network in Pittsburgh, New Hampshire. the first
weekend in August, the annual Jericho Mountain ATV Festival is held,
attracting thousands of people come to Jericho Mountain in Berlin.
Jericho Lake offers swimming, fishing, and paddling, as well as camping,
cabins, bathhouses, and a visitor center. Adults $4, children (6-11) $2.
Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, 20 Petrograd St, ☏ +1 603-752-2254.
In the early 1900s, a significant number of Russian immigrants lived in
Berlin. They contributed to the establishment and construction of this
Eastern Orthodox church with its typical architectural style of onion
domes. The church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1979.
Berlin is served by New Hampshire Routes 110 and 16; NH-110's eastern
terminus is in downtown Berlin, while NH-16 runs north through Berlin
from Portsmouth to its northern terminus at the state line in
Magalloway, Maine. The closest interstate to Berlin is I-93, which is
about an hour's drive from Berlin.
Driving
From the south,
take I-93 north to exit 35 for US-3 North and continue on US-3 North
until entering New Hampshire Route 115 North at Carroll, New Hampshire
NH-115 North. Continue to the end of US-2 north of Jefferson, New
Hampshire. From here, continue on US-2 East to the intersection with New
Hampshire Route 16 in Gorham, New Hampshire, and continue north on NH-16
to Berlin.
There are two ways to come from the north: take US-3 north
to its intersection with NH-110 in Northumberland, then take NH-110 east
to its terminus in Berlin. If coming from the north on Interstate 93,
take I-93 South to exit 40 for US-302 East, then US-302 East to the
intersection with US-3. From this point, continue north on US-3 until
you exit onto New Hampshire Route 115 North in Carroll, New Hampshire;
continue on NH-115 North to its northern terminus at US-2 in Jefferson,
New Hampshire. From here, follow US-2 east to the end of US-2 in
Jefferson, New Hampshire. From here, continue on US-2 east to the
intersection with New Hampshire Route 16 in Gorham, New Hampshire, and
continue north on NH-16 to Berlin.
By foot.
The downtown area of Berlin and its attractions can be
easily explored on foot, but a car is required for attractions and
activities outside of the city center.
By bus
Use Tri County
Transit's bus service to reach the city and nearby Gorham.
About 11,000 years ago, a small group of Native Americans camped in
the area now known as Berlin. In later years, the eastern Abenaki tribe
came to Berlin to mine the meteorites of Mt. Jasper.
When British
settlers came to America, Berlin was first granted by Colonial Governor
John Wentworth on December 31, 1771, as "Mainesborough," named for Sir
William Main. However, the land disappeared with the Revolutionary War;
in 1802, Seth Eames and Gideon Tyrrell were sent on an expedition by
Maine descendants to show the plots for settlers, but still no one came;
between 1823 and 1824, William Sessions and his nephew Silas Wheeler
settled in Mainesborough; both were from Gilead, Maine. The first
industry was agriculture; the New England town, which had a population
of 65 in 1829, was reincorporated as Berlin on July 1 with the
assistance of Silas's father, Thomas Wheeler.
Located in a
heavily forested area, the town developed early on as a center of the
logging and lumber industry. The falls of the Androscoggin River
provided water power for sawmills; a road to Gorham was built by Thomas,
Amos, and Daniel Green in 1826; the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad
opened to Berlin in 1851, linking the city to other markets; in the
early 1850s water, H. Winslow Company, which had acquired timber and
railroad rights, built a large sawmill at the headwaters of the "Berlin
Falls. "In 1868, William Wentworth Brown and Lewis T. Brown purchased a
controlling interest in the business and changed the company name to
Berlin Mills Company.
By 1885, several pulp and paper mills had
sprung up, including Riverside Mill, Forest Fiber Company, and White
Mountain Pulp and Paper Company. Because the mills needed labor,
immigrants came from Russia, Norway, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Ireland,
and Germany. Many others were French Canadians from nearby Quebec.
In 1872, a group of Scandinavians founded the oldest ski club in the
country, which still exists today. Originally called the North American
Ski Club (Nordamerikansk Skiklubben in Norwegian), it was later renamed
the Nansen Ski Club. In 1897, Berlin was incorporated as the
northernmost city in the state.
In 1874, the Boston and Maine
Railroad passed through the eastern part of town and operated on this
line until the 1980s. The old tracks are now used as an ATV trail.
The pulp and paper industry was a major industry in Berlin in the
early 20th century, but has long since been in decline. In 1917, due to
World War I and anti-German sentiment against the then-enemy, the Berlin
Mills Company was renamed the Brown Company. The company was renamed
Braun, due to anti-German sentiment against World War I and its
then-enemies. The company survived with government assistance and was
bought and sold several times after World War II.
In 2001,
American Tissue filed for bankruptcy, but had stopped paying municipal
taxes prior to that. The facility was purchased by Canadian company
Fraser Papers in 2002. In March 2006, however, Fraser Papers announced
the closure of its Berlin pulp mill, and on May 6, 2006, 250 employees
were laid off, some transferred to Cascade's paper finishing plant, but
most lost their jobs.
On October 3, 2006, the North American
Dismantling Corporation of Michigan announced that it had purchased 121
acres (49 hectares) of the former Fraser Paper pulp mill site and would
demolish it over the next year for redevelopment. Laidlaw Energy then
purchased a portion of the former Fraser site, including a large
recovery boiler that will be converted to a 66-megawatt biomass power
plant in 2010-2011.
In the 1990s, local historian and author Paul
"Poof" Tardiff began writing articles for the Berlin Daily Sun. He later
compiled these into a three-volume series called Once Upon a Berlin
Time, which documented local history. He continued to write articles for
the newspaper every Tuesday and Thursday until his death in 2018.
Recent economic development has been based on the corrections
industry: the 750-bed Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility was
built in 1999 and employs about 200 people; in 2012, the Federal Bureau
of Prisons opened a 1,200-bed medium security facility, which employs
about 350 people; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons opened a new
1,200-bed medium security facility, which employs about 350 people.
The economy of Berlin was shaped by the large forests in the surrounding area. The timber industry provided the raw material for the paper industry, which was Berlin's most important source of income for over a hundred years. In 2006 the last large paper mill was closed. In January 2009, part of the former mill site was purchased by Laidlaw Energy Group, Inc. for a biomass energy project. Tourism is also an important source of income. The Presidential Range winter sports area on nearby Mount Washington in particular attracts tourists to the region.
Of the residents, 64.7% speak English, 34.3% French and 1.0% German.