A tablet marks the site of the old meetinghouse where, in 1774, Sullivan and his band of Durham patriots supposedly stored the gunpowder they had taken from the British at Fort William and Mary in New Castle. Although the British attempted to retrieve the gunpowder, the shallow river halted their frigate at Portsmouth.
The ensuing century of rural and maritime activity ended in 1893. A bequest to the state removed the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (which later became the University of New Hampshire) from Hanover, where it had been founded in association with Dartmouth College in 1866, to Durham. University and community quickly blended, and Durham assumed its role as a college town. The university's Paul Creative Arts Center is a focus for cultural activities; phone (603) 862-7222 for the ticket office.