10: Pitman's Freight Room

in the 1800's, Pitman Manufacturing of Laconia was one of the largest hosiery manufacturers in the State.  It was owned by Joseph P Pitman.  In 1890, the company built a track-side freight depot at 94 New Salem Street. The freight room was sold in the 1940s, and after several different owners, it was purchased by the Mitchells in 1988. They used the space for boat storage for a few years and as an antiques store for 16 years. In 2009, they closed the store and renovated it, adding a second bathroom, commercial kitchen, HVAC and a 5-sided dance floor, so that it could reopen as a performance venue and conference space called Pitman’s Freight Room.

Pitman’s could hold around 200 guests, seated in the kind of furniture that you might find in a friend’s living room or on the back deck. The building, in order to fit into the triangular lot, was an unusual shape. That architecture was no doubt intended to maximize its function, storing crates either bound for or arriving via a railroad car.  However, it also had the side effect of creating a space where every audience member was close to the stage, and a room which had great natural acoustics.  Among other attractions, Pitman’s offered “Political Suicide,” four one-act plays by Ernest Thompson in February 2012, and a staged version of Thompson’s “On Golden Pond,” in August 2012.  

In 2018, Dawn and Dave Longval opened Isaiah 61 Café next door to the Freight Room. After Pitmans' Freight room closed in 2021, partially due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Longval's purchased the building and moved their cafe operation into it. Their previous cafe space is now a low barrier, overnight, winter-only shelter with about 30 bunkbeds.