Lafayette Road looking south from "Whittier Junction"

"TOPPAN'S CORNER" (on the south side) or "WHITTIER JUNCTION" (on the north side), was the junction of Lafayette Road and Winnacunnet Road, back in the "good old days". Today, the Galley Hatch Restaurant is located at "Toppan's Corner" which derives its name from the family of Toppan, an old Hampton name.

"Old New Hampshire", by Newton Marshall Hall, printed in the July 1896 edition of the New England magazine, had this to say about this location:

"On the left of this road (Lafayette Road), nearly facing the (Whittier) Hotel, surrounded by magnificent elms, stands the Toppan mansion, built in the somewhat rare type of colonial architecture, in which two wings meet at a right angle. The house was built about the year 1720, by Dr. Edmund Toppan and has been occupied by the Toppan family until very recently."

This grand old building was used at various times in the 1700's as a Garrison house for protection against possible Indian attacks, and was sometimes known as the "Toppan Garrison House".

After razing in the early part of 1900, the huge front door was salvaged and is now on the one-room district school house located on the Meeting House Green, near the Tuck Memorial Museum at 40 Park Avenue, Hampton.

On this Green, the first settlers of Hampton, under Rev. Stephen Bachiler, built their first meeting house in 1638. Here, also, appeared the first homes around the Green and early Hampton grew and prospered. Today, the Green contains the buildings of the Hampton Historical Society: The Tuck Memorial Museum, the one-room District School House, the Farm Museum, the Fire Museum, the Hampton Beach Cottage and the restored Leavitt Barn ["In 2004, the Historical Society reached an agreement with the new owners of the former Sanders & McDermott office building (Taylor/Leavitt house on Lafayette Road) to save from demolition the 38 foot by 36 foot barn on that site. The barn was built circa 1796 and was in very good condition."] Also, various historical markers of Hampton colorful past can be viewed on the Green.