Leo Osborne Reflecting Pool

This site is dedicated to the memory of Leo Osborne for his significant civic contributions to the town. Summer resident William Baird Jr contributed funds to remove the vacant and deteriorating mill buildings at the heart of the upper village and funded the creation of this reflecting pool memorial. Baird participated in the 1958 "Plan for the Improvement of Sunapee Harbor" was finalized.

From the early 1800’s, at the head of the Sugar River in Sunapee’s upper village there were log and stone dams and water-powered mills, including a saw mill, a grist mill, machine shops, a wood pulp mill, and buildings of the Granite Hames Company. For decades, this site on the north side of the High Street Bridge along with land on the south side, formed the industrial hub of the town. In 1940, the last manufacturer, Brampton Woolen Company shut down their operation in the old Hames works buildings and the area headed into two decades of deterioration. 

William Torrey Baird Jr. (1886-1969) had spent summers on Lake Sunapee, loved the area and felt strongly that Sunapee was in need of rebuilding. In 1957, Baird gave the town $1,000 “to make plans for its improvement”. With an additional $500 contributed by the town, a professional study was conducted to prepare the 1958 report, “Plan for the Improvement of Sunapee Harbor.” The first step towards revitalization was removal of the empty and dilapidated mill buildings.

As work to clean up the old mill sites around the river proceeded, Selectman Leo Osborne (1887-1964), who served Sunapee as Selectman for 44 years, died. Because of his enthusiasm about the “new look” for Sunapee, William Baird sought to memorialize Leo Osborne for his significant civic contributions to the town. Baird hired a landscape architect to design the Leo L. Osborne Reflecting Pool, a plan to turn the unsightly outflow below the granite dam into a beautiful water feature. Baird donated the funds for its construction, and saw its completion in 1966.

Barbara Bache Chalmers, Sunapee's Historic Buildings & Places Vol. 1 (Sunapee Historical Society, 1918 & 1919)