After Concord became New Hampshire's capital in 1808, citizens donated land for a state house, creating spacious grounds long known as State House Park. First enclosed by a wooden fence and later by cast iron, the site has been bounded since 1915 by a broad granite retaining wall. The grounds became the state's foremost display of sculpture and memorials, many made from local granite. The first statue, Daniel Webster, was installed in 1886, followed by monuments including John Parker Hale, Commodore George Hamilton Perkins, General John Stark, Franklin Pierce, a Veterans Memorial, the New Hampshire Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, a full-size Liberty Bell replica cast in 1950, and a memorial arch dedicated in 1892 to Concord's soldiers and sailors. These memorials honor figures in New Hampshire and national history, including Webster, Hale, Stark, Pierce, and Governor John Gilbert Winant, and commemorate military service, sacrifice, law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, and ideals of American freedom and independence.
