A Bit of History

Let a short history lesson suffice: Since 1937, at the intersection of Route 11 and Route 114, an intersection old-timer's call Crockett's Corner and newcomers may call the Four Corners, dairy farmers and dedicated restaurateurs have offered irresistible hospitality. In its first life, summer meant dashing up or down the hill for dairyman Dura Crockett's ice cream, perhaps a stop for a luscious brownie sundae on the way home from a performance at the Barn Player’s. Long-time seasonal resident, Midge Eliason described the experience as the front porch question, "Who wants to go to Crockett's for ice cream?"

Cotton Cleveland, former town meeting moderator and native, remembers Crockett's ice cream and the ten trampolines in town in the 50’s provided town kids with their only entertainment. As if local testimony weren't sufficient, one of New London's most famous summer visitors, Thornton Wilder is reported to have ended many a day's work as a camp counselor and tutor in the 1930’s with a walk from Old County Road to Crockett's for an ice cream treat. Admirer's of his iconic version of small-town New England life - the play "Our Town"- will note that he might not have been able to imagine his view of the White Mountains, that "range on range of hills" without standing at the four corners with smooth iced cream in hand. Perhaps he even saw the "moon come over the mountain."

For many locals still in the area, the building is widely remembered as The Gray House which was operating in the early seventies into the late eighties run by Bob Williams. The Gray House was a staple, continuing the tradition of dairy ice cream to die for and providing “an extension of my living room,” as Bob would say. The Flying Goose keeps the history alive with old pictures of the building, famous NL buildings, prominent town residents, and an original menu from The Gray House.

At the Flying Goose Brew Pub & Grille, travelers and old-timers, newcomers and seasonal residents, students at Colby-Sawyer College, their friends, and parents can still expect to hear regional wisdoms and pieties exchanged in the setting that the restaurant's most recent owner Tom Mills has designed to continue providing the legendary hospitality at the corner just below the town's "windy hill."

"If These Walls Could Talk" by Ann Page Stecker, a professor of humanities at Colby-Sawyer College.
Ann is also the author of Our Voices, Our Town, A History of New Hampshire*
(Photos - courtesy of the New London Town Archives.)
*available at Morgan Hill Bookstore here in New London, or at the Town office