In 1924 when David Colt first opened the doors of Colt News Store in Hampton, he opened the doors to history. The store would serve as a meeting place for friends and family, a grassroots campaigning location for several future governors, U.S. senators, and presidents, and a stable business in the downtown region. But as Hampton looks toward a new millennium, the history of Colt News comes to an end. Though they’ll be open for irregular hours during January, Dec. 31 marks the official end of 81 years of business.

On a weekday afternoon, three weeks before Christmas, manager Jean Power stands behind a register at the back of the store beneath two words spelled out on the wall behind her: “Tobacco” and “Newspapers.” Directly below the corresponding signs are several different brands of cigarettes, all in neatly organized holders, and about 15 stacks of local and national newspapers on a wooden table. Customers browse through the long aisles of greeting cards, party balloons and supplies, stuffed animals, picture frames and ornate gifts, taking advantage of the 50 percent off sale, which has left many shelves bare. Even as the final day nears and merchandise grows sparse, Colt News has a steady stream of customers passing through its glass doorway. 

Power has worked at Colt since 1984, when she started as a clerk. She says older folks are stopping in to reminisce about the store’s soda fountain and lunch counter days, while some college students have come by just to look around, because the next time they come back to Hampton, Colt will be gone.
“A lot of people said the store is part of Hampton, so where are we going from here if Colt is going out of business,” Power says.

David Colt originally sold newspapers and periodicals, later adding a soda fountain to the store. In 1945, deciding to focus on his other business—photofinishing—he sold Colt News to Hazel Simonds and her daughter Olga Casassa. Together, along with help from Olga’s husband Herbert, they remodeled the building, adding a new soda fountain and a lunch counter with five dining booths. In 1976 the soda fountain, lunch counter and booths were removed and the store slowly evolved into the card and gift shop it is today, all the while maintaining a large selection of magazines and periodicals.

Colt, besides being a popular meeting spot for friends and family, has been a stop-by site for many a political candidate. George W. Bush walked its aisles while campaigning during his father’s bid for the White House in the late 1980s. Other political visitors include Nelson Rockefeller, gubernatorial candidate Walter Peterson, and Harold Stassen on one of his many campaigns for presidency.    

Current owner Al Casassa, 75, son of Herbert and Olga, referred to Colt in the old days as a drugless drugstore, with everything that old-time drugstores had. Casassa has worked in or helped run the family business almost every day since his parents bought it, except for when he was at college, law school, and military service. He began assembling newspapers at Colt when he was 13, after his parents and grandmother had purchased the store.

One reason for closing the store, says Casassa, is an increase in traffic on Route 1, which runs by Colt’s front doors and makes the store less desirable as an easy a place to shop.

“People are more apt to go to shopping centers today,” says Casassa. “Hampton Center is not the shopping destination that it once was.”

During the past few years, several clothing stores and a drug store have closed their doors in the area as well. But Casassa has faith, hoping that new businesses will come to town if the traffic problem can be fixed.

“I hate to see Colt go because I’ve been associated with it since 1945,” Casassa says. He has no plans yet for what will become of the empty space, but will keep the store open for limited hours in January to sell off any remaining merchandise.

Hampton Center, at the crossroads of Route 1 and Route 27, has in fact been a place of vigorous change the past several years, as older stores make way for the new generation of businesses.

Up the street from Colt, Marelli’s Market, a general store that opened in 1912, with wooden floors worn down from years of traffic, stocks grocery supplies on its shelves. It has survived for so long, says Richard Marelli, by constantly changing and bringing in new products, like candy.

Marelli has worked at the family-run business since his high school days, about 50 years. He cites parking and traffic as the two biggest roadblocks to commerce in the area. He says that what this part of town needs is about 20 stores to increase foot traffic.

“The closing of businesses goes on and off,” says Marelli. “’Round the corner three places closed and
three places took their spot. It would be nice if more people moved in.”

In fact, several blocks down from Marelli’s and Colt News, a realtor’s sign marks a vacant lot. The lot, site of the Odd Fellows Hall until it burned down several years ago, will be the home of The Village Square, an affordable housing complex with 12 one-bedroom condos, to be completed next summer, according to Prudential Rush realtor Lynn Hodges.

The complex will be four stories, with the bottom floor serving as an office for the building’s developers, Drakes Appleton. The condos will be 800 to 900 square feet.   

“The reason people are buying these condos is because it’s a handy location,” says Hodges, who has already sold three of the condos. “People like to be in the middle of activity.”

The Hampton Center strip is two rows of tightly fit stores and businesses bordering a busy Route 1. The cars and trucks seem to travel continuously by the storefronts, when they’re not backed up by the traffic light at the Route 1 and 27 intersection.  Hampton Center is a small part of the town of Hampton, which was settled in 1638.

Many of the stores in Hampton Center have been around less than a decade, others barely over 10 years. Funny Bones Toys has been a couple of doors down from Colt for six years now. Owner David Schwab says one problem with Route 1 is it is a main thoroughfare. He estimates about 400 cars go by his storefront in an hour—which is great free advertising, adds Schwab. As for Funny Bones Toys, a small toy store that sells neat trinkets and gag toys, it’s done OK, says Schwab, though things could always be better.

Currently there is a Route 1 corridor study taking place, says Hampton town planner James Steffan. The study, organized by the Rockingham Planning Commission and funded by the NH Department of Transportation, looks at possible improvements and solutions along Route 1 to help traffic flow through the area. One possible improvement, brought to the attention of the planning commission at one of their public forums, is a bypass option using part of the old railroad corridor, which runs behind several of the businesses on the western side of Route 1. The bypass would alleviate congestion in town by allowing commuters who aren’t headed downtown to pass around it, says Steffan.  

Back in Colt News Store, Power says she’ll miss the customers most, the day-to-day business of seeing and greeting regulars, and knowing they’ll be back. In the store with her are two longtime regulars. Sharon Plouffe of Hampton has been a customer of the store since childhood, and Janice Gilday of Hampton has been a Colt customer since 1970. Gilday says she shops there for the local paper, cards, and unique gifts, and to talk with the employees.

“It’s like home here,” says Gilday. “We’ll miss it like a child moving away.”

Power also thinks of the store as her child, and over the years has helped it to mature by doubling the amount of cards it offers, compared to when she began working there, and adding an extensive gift line.

“I’ve felt sometimes like it was my baby and I was making it grow,” she says.
Sue Launi of Hampton has been a customer of Colt for 16 years and refers to the store as a town landmark.

“It’s another loss to Hampton,” says Launi. “We’ve had new openings (in town), but we hate to lose the old.”

As Christmas rolls by and New Years approaches, Power recalls past Christmas seasons with both registers running at the same time, lines of customers outside the doors, and friends meeting just to talk and have a good time. 

“It’s been a nice job for me,” says Power.