Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above a Former Elementary School

This is the 5th Anniversary of Weathervane Wednesday!  I've posted 256 different blog posts about historic and interesting weathervanes over the past five years.

I post a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New Hampshire, New England and across the globe.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting.  Often my readers tip me off to some very unique or unusual weathervanes, too!  If you know a great weather vane near you, let me know if you'd like to have it featured on this blog.

Today's weather vane was photographed in New Hampshire.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #273?  Scroll down to find the answer.

Today's weathervane was photographed above the former Ash Street School, on the corner of Bridge Street.  This building is now the digital marketing company SilverTech, Inc.  This school was built in 1874 with eight classrooms.  Because of the shape of the building each classroom has windows on three sides, and its design won a gold medal in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.  This building was used as the Manchester school administration office until 2005, when it was bought and renovated by SilverTech in 2007.

The weathervane on the clock tower is a filigree arrow. This type of fancy cutwork in weathervanes was popular during the Victorian age when this school was built.  Both the arrow vane and the cardinal numbers are decorated with cut scroll work, which was made easier by newly developed machinery in the late 1800s.

In 1993 the clock tower was renovated, too, and the clockwork and all four wooden clock dials were completely restored.  It is still mechanically wound twice a week.  The clockworks inside are an 1874 Howard.  The wooden dials are finished with 23k gold leaf.  I couldn't find any information on the weathervane, nor if it was restored at the same as the clock tower.  It looks pretty spiffy with a zoom lens or binoculars!

A postcard of the Ash Street School

from the Manchester Historic Association website

catalog number 2012.514.019

The website for SilverTech in Manchester, NH  http://www.silvertech.com/

Wikipedia article on the Ash Street School - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Street_School_(Manchester,_New_Hampshire)  

Click here to see the entire series of Weathervane Wednesday posts! 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above a Former Elementary School", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 24, 2016,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/08/weathervane-wednesday-above-former.html: accessed [access date]).