A Look Inside Our Town of Peterborough
If you go to Peterborough looking for Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” there are plenty of vestiges of the post-Industrial New England village that inspired the Pulitzer Prize-winning play; the 19th-century buildings, a strong community identity and the old burial ground that served as the setting for Wilder’s emotional final act. But you’ll also find that Peterborough is a hip, sophisticated cultural center in the shadow of Mount Monadnock. It’s “our town” all tricked out.
Need proof? At the drop of a hat you can find two restaurants that serve fresh raw oysters, buy French-milled soap, pick up a designer dress, see professional theater, purchase an original 19th-century oil painting and try your hand at playing African drums.
“The town was the inspiration for Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, but it’s so much more,” says Michele M. Stahl, executive director of the Peterborough Historical Society. “There’s been a renaissance in the last 20 years with the opening of a lot of great restaurants and boutiques. It’s now a small town with all of its appeal, but there’s also an urban feel to it.”
Dave Chicane, who moved to the region a decade ago, not only observed the town’s metamorphosis from quaint village to chic destination but has been part of that change as well. The 42-year-old chef with 22 years’ experience and his wife, Jocie Sinauer, were living in Boston and wanted to make a move that was either more urban — Brooklyn, New York — or country. They chose Peterborough, which they became familiar with while visiting Sinauer’s family summer house in nearby Harrisville.
