Morrill Brothers Building

Walking along North Main Street in Concord, the name high on this building immediately caught my attention: Morrill Bros. Just beneath it is the date 1876, while the lettering across the façade tells us exactly what customers once came here to purchase—watches, clocks, jewelry and solid silverware.

The building dates to 1876 and was designed by New Hampshire architect Edward Dow. Known as the Morrill Brothers Block, it was constructed during a period when Concord’s Main Street was developing into the commercial center of the state capital. Its tall, narrow brick façade, decorative cornice and elaborate window surrounds gave the business a presence on the street that remains recognizable nearly 150 years later.

The business that occupied it had already been operating for more than a decade. Samuel F. Morrill and John F. Morrill established Morrill Brothers in Concord in 1863. By the late nineteenth century, a contemporary description called theirs one of the city’s leading jewelry establishments, selling fine watches, jewelry and solid silverware. The brothers also offered watch and jewelry repair, an especially important service at a time when a good watch was both a valuable possession and an essential piece of everyday technology.

Their merchandise extended beyond what we might expect from a modern jewelry store. Period accounts describe bric-a-brac and other goods and even note that pianos and organs were sold in rooms behind the jewelry shop. It is a wonderful glimpse into the kind of diversified Main Street business that served a growing New England community in the late nineteenth century.

What makes this building particularly interesting to me is that so much of its story is still written directly on its exterior. We do not need an interpretive marker to know that something important once operated here. The Morrill name, the 1876 date and the words describing their merchandise were deliberately incorporated into the architecture.