Last Updated on August 22, 2012 by
ALSTEAD is a handsome post village located in the northwestern part of the town on Cold river. It his two churches (Congregational and Universalist), six or seven stores, several shops or mills of various kinds, and about 100 dwellings. Formerly there was a large amount of paper manufactured here, and from this circumstance the place was called Paper Mill Village, a name which clung to it until about twenty years ago, when the postoffice received the name of Alstead. A point of interest in the vicinity worthy of mention is the “Cocked Hat,” a name given in eminence just east of the village from its singular resemblance to that species of chapeau. Here Cold river and Warren brook unite, it the northern base of this hill. An old bed of one or both of these streams is plainly discernible, however, upon the east and passing around the south and west sides, thirty feet above the present level of the streams. In this dry channel are found numerous large specimens of pot-holes, worn centuries ago, in the solid rock by the old current.