Claremont launches Then & Now scavenger hunt to boost local businesses

Claremont is turning its past into a citywide summer outing, sending residents and visitors on an 11-stop Then & Now scavenger hunt that links local history with downtown and neighborhood businesses. Passports will be available in front of the Fire Station from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 13, and additional passports will be available beginning June 15 at Claremont Central Collections, the Claremont Community Center, the Claremont Visitors Center and the City Finance Office.

The hunt runs from June 18 through July 2, and each participating location will hold a prize drawing that participants can enter. The city said participating businesses will draw winners at the end of the promotion, and the grand prize drawing is set for July 3 with a value of more than $500. City officials are pitching the event as a way to give families a reason to explore familiar streets while also bringing foot traffic to local merchants.

The scavenger hunt is rooted in a place with a deep industrial and civic past. Claremont, Sullivan County’s only city, first grew west of downtown around the water-power potential of the Sugar River, where textile, paper and machinery mills were built. The Claremont NH Historical Society, founded in 1963, says its mission is to preserve and promote public celebration of Claremont history through educational offerings, events and museum exhibits.

That history is visible downtown. Preservation materials describe the city’s historic district as including 54 structures, two public spaces and 19 individual properties of outstanding architectural or historical significance, with the Claremont City Hall and Opera House serving as a central focus. The Claremont Opera House opened in 1897, and the Sugar River mill site on Main Street traces back to Benjamin Tyler’s grist and saw mills from as early as 1775.

The city’s own visitor information also points to the practical side of the hunt. The Visitors Center at 14 North Street, the Central Collections office at 58 Opera House Square and the Finance Office at 58 Opera House Square all sit within the civic and commercial core the city wants people to keep moving through. By folding history into a prize-driven walk, Claremont is trying to make downtown feel less like a pass-through and more like a destination.