From 1999

Join us for . . . A "Virtual Tour" of Gunthwaite!

Part 1 of 2
(Part 2 is here)

Please join us for this "virtual tour" of Ruth Doan MacDougall's fictional town of Gunthwaite, New Hampshire. Gunthwaite has strong roots in the New Hampshire city of Laconia, and it was to Laconia that three fans journeyed in May 1999 for a this much-anticipated visit. Ruth had been kind enough to promise those of us who work on the website some first-hand glimpses, and we'd set the date based on when Jan would be visiting New England from her home in Israel. Jennifer came up from the Boston area.

I'm Marney, and I live in Southern California. I'm the lucky fan who gets to do this website: its design and maintenance, as well as handling the mail that comes into the site. Jan and Jennifer have written trivia quizzes,

Ruth, her husband, Don, Don's brother Kirk Dougal, and Marney's husband George joined the three fans for the day's events. With us also for part of the day was Concord Monitor reporter Annmarie Timmins.

So, who are these people, standing with their backs to the river, across the road from the house which served as Ruth's inspiration for Snowy's house? From left to right are Kirk, Don, Marney, Jen, Ruthl, and Jan. You'll see more of all of us in the pages of this Virtual Tour--except for George, who took all of the pictures other than the tunnel photos at the hight school; those were taken by Kirk Dougal, Don's brother.

The quotes you'll see in bold type are from THE CHEERLEADER, © by Ruth Doan MacDougall; all rights reserved..

The High School 

"March 4, 1955."

As you'd expect, Laconia has changed in forty-four years. Without Ruth's expert guidance, we'd have had trouble finding most of the landmarks we know of from THE CHEERLEADER. Ruth and Don took their guide duties seriously and extensive homework was done. To avoid crisscrossing all over town Ruth planned a neat and tidy itinerary for our day together. But all of us know that the proper way to see "Gunthwaite" through Snowy's eyes is to begin at Gunthwaite High School. Ruth's model for this fictional place was Laconia High School. So as we share our tour with you, we'll be following a rough outline from the book, not taking you along the actual route we took. 

 "The corridor smelled of paints from the art room they were walking past, then of sneakers as they passed the boys' locker room."

The boys' locker room is now a storage area, but our imaginations are vivid, and all of us knew exactly how this room was supposed to look. Fanning herself vigorously, Jen was heard to exclaim,"The boys were naked . . . right here!"

As Jen fanned, Robin Shotola, the Concord Monitor photographer accompanying us, was shooting feverishly. Her pictures illustrated the Concord Monitor article that Annmarie wrote for the paper.

"In the auditorium where cheerleader tryouts were held..."

That auditorium is now the library in the remodeled Laconia High School, but the stage remains.

Fittingly perhaps, fiction is shelved on what was once the stage. Yes, there are Ruth Doan MacDougall titles there! Don is showing us all where furniture and accessories remembered from the past are now placed as Ruth, reporter Annmarie Timmins, Kirk, and Assistant Principal David Witham look on.

"Last year she and Puddles and Bev and the rest of the Gang had gone out for cheering, going to the sessions at which the cheerleaders taught cheers and jumps and cartwheels...and the first tryouts came. 

"They were held on the stage of the auditorium."

Ruth agreed to give cheerleading one more try on her old high school stage. Jen follows along. 

Next, the infamous tunnel!

 "The entrance was a sacred place to Snowy. Tom had his traffic post here."

Standing at his old traffic post spot in the tunnel, Don explained just what having this traffic post involved. "Students would be coming up and down the stairs," he said, "mainly to and from the cafeteria and also to go to and from classes in the Practical Arts building. My job was to stand at the head of the stairs and separate the two lines of moving students so that traffic would flow smoothly."

 As we left the school Ruth explains that we'd next head into town to see the inspiration for such locations as Hooper's and the Colonial movie theater.  

"They walked around to the front of the school and glanced back. Two brick buildings beyond a snow-covered lawn. Gunthwaite High School. Their world."

Sorry about the lack of snow! Here, Ruth and Don stop to chat by the school's name marker, framed by the school buildings in the background. The original main building is to the left and the original Practical Arts building to the right. Once only connected underground by the tunnel, they are now connected by the new building in between.

(Ruth noted that the name marker has been added since Snowy's day; no identification was deemed necessary back then.)

From the school we headed over toward "Hooper's."

"Then there was a gas station, and then Hooper's which wasn't dim but whitely lighted, a clapboard oasis."

Hooper's was modeled after Laconia's Weeks' Dairy Bar, and as long-time fans of this site know, Weeks' closed just days before our tour. But the building was there, undergoing remodeling on its way to becoming a Chinese restaurant.

I must report that we startled the new owners, hard at work with paintbrushes, hammers, and saws, as we barged in, asking if we could look around, sit down in the vacant booths, take the old menus down off the wall and photograph them outside where the light was better, but they were extremely gracious about granting our requests.

A copy of the website page which documented when Weeks' closed is available here as a PDF. You may download it HERE. 

The Woolworth's building is still there, but it's a book and gift shop now, called Sundial Shop. Ruth tells us that the bookstore portion of Sundial Shop stands about where the aquariums once stood, for Woolworth's sold goldfish, along with many, many other items. 

" . . . and under the theater marquee on which a border of blinking golden lights fled around and around the big words SO THIS IS PARIS." 

The old movie theater is out of business, but it was still in operation when we visited. Ruth posed below the marquee with Jan and Marney. The winter scene of downtown Laconia, shown at the top of the page includes a more recent view (2022) of the theater's exterior. 

The theater has undergone several changes over the years; a history is HERE.

Next on our agenda was a visit to the Cat Path.

" . . . and he turned off onto the dirt road known as the Cat Path.

The dirt road is paved now, and houses line what was once a popular teen spot. The new street's name?... Cat Path! Here, the Gang clowns in front of the sign. We visitors were all surprised at how far out of town the Cat Path was. 

Next, a visit to Weirs Beach

"On nights when Snowy and Puddles or Bev didn’t have a date, they would do what was known as ‘broad around’...They would pick up some more of the Gang and drive to the lake and stroll around the penny arcades...and flirt with the boys who were also on the prowl."

 We went out to Weirs Beach, the site of the novel’s penny arcades and dance hall. Don spent his early boyhood years in this area and we all enjoyed his reminisces of life here in the 40s and 50s. Ruth and Don took us to several tourist attractions in the area. 

The Drive-In Outdoor Movie Theater

"So when Tom and Snowy got to the drive-in the cartoon had started, and they drove along the rows searching for Jack's car. Sure enough, it was in the back row against the woods." The drive-in was sstill in use at the time of our visit but the speakers mounted adjacent to each parking space that were pulled into car windows  had been removed and replaced with a system of in-car sound via FM radio reception.

2018 Update: In a Facebook entry Ruth wrote:
"Last year Don and I thought that our hometown Weirs Drive-in was a goner. Although we haven’t been to it in decades, our memories are vivid and we mourned its passing. Prematurely. The sale that had been arranged fell through, and a recent headline the Laconia Daily Sun announced that the Weirs Drive-in “Opens for Another Season after Failed Sale.” The owner, who will be eighty in two months, has “mixed feelings about the start of a new season.” She says, “I love the drive-in and I love my customers, but I really kind of wanted to retire.” The drive-in, one of only three left in New Hampshire (I think), is still for sale, for $2.6 million; “the property could be used for a hotel, condominiums, or other mixed retail-commercial development.”

(2024) The drive-in continued to operate through its 2023 season but announced in April, 2024 that a decision had been made to not reopen for the 2024 season.

 The Gunthwaite Tour continues HERE.