17: Federal Building

Conceived and built during the Depression era as the United States Forestry Building, the cornerstone was laid in 1939, and the building was dedicated soon after in July 1940. The building, authorized under the New Deal’s colossal building program, is designed in a stripped Classical Revival style and is representative of one of several styles preferred by government architects in the 1930s.  

Originally built to house the offices of the White Mountain National Forest, it now houses a regional social services agency. This is the original site of the Joseph P Pitman House.  Pitman came to Laconia around 1830, and began building the mercantile business, Pitman Hardware. He then founded the Pitman Manufacturing Company in 1868, which manufactured knit goods.