Parks & Views
The Jaffrey Center parks & view sheds are public spaces, open year-round for people to visit them. If however a person or persons wish to use them for gathering purposes or special events, permission must be sought by contacting the VIS.
Hours
Daily, 8am to dusk
The JCVIS maintains 22.5 acres of parks, commons and open space available to the public in the Jaffrey Center Historic District, including scenic views of Mt. Monadnock.
There are many beautiful spots in the Jaffrey Center Historic District to either sit and have a picnic or simply enjoy stunning views of Mt. Monadnock. The largest, Centennial Park, is a 1.3 acres welcoming you at the entrance of Jaffrey Center, where you can take in the views and surroundings from one of the benches spread throughout the park. Cutter-Tenney Park, also known as the Upper and Lower Common, is a 1 acre property in front of the Meetinghouse. It’s another lovely place to enjoy your surroundings and the seasonal flowers by the VIS flagpole and horse trough.
Mt. Monadnock is visible from most of the VIS properties and view sheds in the Jaffrey Center Historic district. In addition to the many perspectives in which you can view the mountain on your visit, there is also, ‘A View Forever’ on Thorndike Pond Rd. Sandi Best of Cambridge, MA and McCoy Road, Jaffrey, in 2011 gave this 6.23 acre parcel, with an expansive view of Mt. Monadnock from 400’ of frontage on Thorndike Pond Road, to the JCVIS, which had just started a conservation easement program. Friends of Sandi sponsored a plaque in her honor, unveiled at a memorial ceremony after her death in 2014.
'A View Forever' given to JCVIS by Sandi Best.
Yellow daffodils line the stone walls at Cutter-Tenney Park with flag pole in the center and mountain beyond. Photograph by Suze Campbell
Mount Monadnock, viewed from the Melville Academy lawn and Thorndike Pond Road, peaks through the summer foliage. Photograph by Ron Yantiss
The view by the Horsesheds is of the peak of Mount Monadnock, the Old Burying Grounds where Amos Fortune, Laban Ainsworth, "Aunt" Hannah Davis and Willa Cather are buried. Photograph by Ken Campbell
Fall in Centennial Park
A Tour of JCVIS Parks in the Jaffrey Center Historic District
Map of property owned by the JCVIS and conservation easements.
▪︎ The VIS Centennial Park, its flag, and benches welcome you as you enter the Historic District of Jaffrey Center along Main Street (Route 124) from the east, about two miles from downtown Jaffrey’s intersection of Routes 124, 202, and 137. The VIS also maintains Wetherell Common, a small triangle of land at Main Street and Harkness Road.
▪︎ A short stroll down Bryant Road leads to the second gate of Centennial Park and a view of Mt. Monadnock and the 12-acre Swale, a boggy meadow. The white tower of the VIS’s Melville Academy on Thorndike Pond Road can be seen below the horizon of trees.
▪︎ The VIS Flagpole, the 1775 Meetinghouse to its right, and the VIS benches and daylilies make a calming presence.
▪︎ At Thorndike Pond Road and Main Street, mowed paths lead to the flagpole on the site of the old Cutter Hotel, destroyed in a 1906 fire, which prompted the creation of the Village Improvement Society.
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