a street with character
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108 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine.com
Bonnet Street has benefited
immensely from the ways
in which people modified
some of the older homes
and small home-businesses
into retail shops and
professional offices.
Having admired the bold beauty
of this house, built around 1920,
perhaps you would like to know
what it is like to live in downtown
Manchester. Homeowner Joanie Pine
Burns, who did a major restoration
seven years ago, says, “I love it.
I wanted very much to be right
in town. Bonnet Street is not as
busy as Main Street where there
are more businesses and tourists,
and in the evenings, it quiets down
here. I often walk and chat with my
neighbors, and it’s quite nice to hear
stories about their houses.” She says
her house, which she calls Bonnet
House, has “a great spirit.” You, too,
can give daily life on Bonnet Street
a try—Burns lists the cute cottage
(originally a two-car garage) tucked
in beside the house as a short-term
rental called Tucked In.
Stop a moment to shift your gaze
along the row of buildings across
the street—you will notice that
many of the properties have
undergone what city planners call
“adaptive re-use.” It is a formal
way of saying “We took an old
building and made something else
out of it without tearing it down.”
The challenge is to look past the
signage and through the new, and
sometimes, odd additions to “see” the