Editor’s note: This is the second in an occasional series leading up to the 275th anniversary celebration of the Town of Salem, N.H., an event called “Salembration” planned for Aug. 9.
SALEM, N.H. — Before Rockingham Park opened in 1906 as the first horse race track in New England, the property was owned and cultivated as farm land by the Kimball and Woodbury families.
The families sold their land in 1905 to the New England Breeders’ Club, headed by New York investors John Gates and Andrew Miller, who spent more than $1 million, the equivalent of $36.5 million today, building a state-of-the art clubhouse and new race track. The venue was once proclaimed the world’s finest by betters and breeders, according to the Rockingham Park Legacy Group.
Deep rooted in the livelihood and sustainability of the farming industry, the Kimball family relocated their business to North Broadway, where they built a grain elevator on Main Street. The silo sat just to the left of the former Sunoco Station before it was torn down in the mid-1900s.
At the time of the race track’s grand opening in 1906, gambling was illegal in the state of New Hampshire, but bets were made underground. As a result, after just three days the races were shut down and the track was idle for the next five years before being reopened under the ownership of Edward Searles in 1911.
He purchased the property for $100,000, the equivalent of $2.8 million today, and held a series of historically significant events, most notably the day that Lt. Thomas Milling, who trained under the Wright Brothers, set an altitude record of 1,600 feet in his biplane.
The following year, Searles introduced the Rockingham Fairs to the town of Salem, which delivered hot-air balloons, automobile races, livestock shows, a carnival, interactive exhibits and Grant Circuit horse racing without wagering. The fairs lasted until 1915.
Enter the war
When the United States joined World War I in 1917, the grounds were transformed into a temporary camp for the 14th U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. More than 1,200 men from around the country were trained at “Camp Rockingham” through 1919 before they were sent to France, which was in desperate need of railroad lines at the time. The 14th Regiment was mostly made up of railroad engineers, track layers and brick builders who helped construct the needed tracks in France to move troops, ammunition, supplies and food throughout the country.
“’F’ Company, the first company to reach full strength, together with regimental headquarters, were called into active service and assembled at Rockingham Park on June 25, 1917,” according to the “History of the Fourteenth Engineers U.S. Army from May 1917 to May 1919,” published in 1923.
“For three days, they were busy removing seats from the grandstand, tables and benches from the exhibition halls and making other preparations needed for the accommodation of the regiment.”
The Administration Building was selected as regimental headquarters and quarters for a few officers, while the officers’ mess and quarters for the other officers were established in the clubhouse, according to the publication. Non-commissioned staff and companies A, B and C were housed in the grandstand, and companies D, E and F slept in the exhibition halls.
When World War I ended near the end 1918, Camp Rockingham stopped housing soldiers and formally closed its doors sometime in 1919, a year before Searles death in 1920.
Depression and progression
After his death, his secretary, Arthur T. Walker, sold the park to Rockingham Motor Speedway in 1925. Though the first automobile races took place during the Rockingham Fair as early as 1912, it wasn’t until the 1920s that they revved up, according to the Rockingham Park Legacy Group, an organization designed to keep alive the storied history of the track.
The first races were around the dirt oval of the former horseracing track, but as they became more popular, the new owners replaced the dirt track with wooden planks built over the dirt.
In some places, steep hills were built for daredevil riders. Motorcycle racing also became popular on the new track. However, because it was so dangerous, the races were discontinued in 1929.
Impacted by the Great Depression, which began in 1929, automobile racing also ended and the park fell into ruin shortly after.
Lou Smith, the park’s fourth owner who was affectionately known to locals as “Uncle Lou,” formed the New England Breeders’ Association with Sam Simon and the pair bought the park in 1931, though the Depression was in full swing, for $300,000, the equivalent of $6.3 million today. They renovated the facilities and brought horse racing back to the track. But gambling was still illegal, so races ended again five days later.
For the next two years, Smith lobbied for pari-mutuel wagering, also known as pool betting, and in 1933 legislation passed and horse racing was brought back to the track with legal wagering. Under Smith’s ownership, thoroughbred racing and the famous Grand Circuit horse races returned to the park.
In 1936, Smith formed the New Hampshire Jockey Club and the track became known as “Little Saratoga” for its beauty and racing quality.
The state legalized the nation’s first modern lottery in 1963 and the track’s long association with the lottery began. The following year, sweepstakes tickets were sold statewide and the prize was set at $250,000. The race attracted the best horses, trainers and jockeys, many of them future Hall of Famers. However, the race’s importance diminished over time as other states introduced their own lotteries.
During Smith’s 36-year tenure prior to his death in 1969, track revenues made up an average of 20% of the state’s general fund appropriations. After his death, Rockingham Park was taken over by attorney Ken Graf, who had been Smith’s close counsel since 1933, according to Gallop Magazine, a thoroughbred racing commentary.
The fateful fire
Under Graf, Rockingham Park continued to attract national talent until 1980, when an early-morning fire raged out of control, destroying the grandstand and shuttering the track.
“Hardcore horsemen wept unabashedly … because among the rubble lay nearly a lifetime of fond and happy memories,” Boston Globe racing correspondent Sam McCracken said in 1980 after the fire.
Many feared the track would never reopen and for the next four years, it didn’t. Then in 1984, it was purchased by the Rockingham Venture Group, fronted by brothers Joseph Carney and Dr. Thomas Carney, Edward Keelan and Max Hugel.
The old harness track was converted to a turf course, paving the way for a 1⅛-mile race, which became a fixture for high-class thoroughbred racehorses until 2004, when the last such race was held, followed by the end of harness racing in 2009.
Still, people ventured to Rockingham Park to gamble, but not on live horse races, and slowly, the facility began to crumble.
The park was closed in August of 2016 after 110 years, citing revenue losses and the failure to secure alternative charitable gaming options for its demise.
“To the people that grew up in Salem in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the racetrack was a big part of the community,” former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, whose mother worked at Rockingham Park, told the Boston Globe at the time.
The Tuscan transformation
By October of that year, Joe Faro of Tuscan Brands announced he’d purchased the property for $40 million to transform the racetrack into today’s Tuscan Village, The Eagle-Tribune reported in 2016.
Since its sale, the remaining 120 acres of the 170-acre Rockingham Park racetrack has slowly transformed into the mixed-use residential and commercial space it is today, featuring retail, restaurant, hotel, medical and office space, along with residential and workforce housing.
The development is a major attraction in Salem, especially during the holidays, driving up tourism and property values for residents and town officials. Expanding his footprint, Faro, alongside Sal Lupoli, of Lupoli Companies, just celebrated the grand opening of Casino Salem which sits adjacent to the Tuscan Village property.
More amenities are expected as Faro and the Salem Planning Board continue to work together to develop the changing property. Most recently, Faro and his development team were before the board to present an updated version of the development’s Master Plan that seeks to bring additional housing, office, medical and retail space to the northeast corner of the village.
The history of the racetrack is not lost on Faro. Strewn throughout the mixed-use property are monuments, statues and plaques honoring the Park’s history.