Book excerpt: Laconia, New Hampshire, is the county seat of Belknap County, and is situated in almost the geographic center of the state. Today Laconia and the Lake Winnipesaukee area are known chiefly for their tourist attractions and their outstanding natural beauty, but for more than a century and a half Laconia was known throughout New Hampshire and beyond for its extraordinary industrial innovation and output, and for its dynamic population. Laconia is a city which can truly be said to have enjoyed and suffered many changes over the years and it is the vitality that has resulted from confronting these transformations that is unique about the city and its people. From Main Street in the 1850s, through the textile and hosiery mills which once lined the Winnipesaukee River, by the first railroad station, through the bustling Downtown in the days that preceded Urban Renewal, and into the neighborhoods, this wonderful book is a trip down memory lane that anyone familiar with Laconia will find impossible to put down.