Located in the Wambec Mill Building in the heart of Manchester, New Hampshire’s historic millyard district, the Mill-A-Round offers a unique location for your next event.
A large central meeting area, wooden floor, air conditioning and social area make this a comfortable place to hold your next event.
We are easily accessible from major highways and are centrally located in southern New Hampshire: within 25 miles of Concord, Nashua, and Milford, NH; and within an hour’s drive from Keene, NH, the Seacoast area, and Boston and northern Massachusetts.
The main hall has a 3600 square foot area, consisting of a 10 x 21 foot stage, 50x70 (3500 ft2) foot dance area and the balance for seating. Directly adjacent to the main floor is a 400 square foot social area in which there is a private restroom, sink disposal, and micro-wave. A coffee maker with supplies is available, along with a refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and water – both on a pay-per-use basis.
There are two pictures above depicting all three sound systems. The two on the stage consist of (the one on the right is used for square dance calling and is a 300 watt Hilton unit driving two Yak Stack speakers) (the one on the left is a dual CD unit available for DJ applications, connected to a 500 watt amplifier, driving the house’s four speakers). Either unit can be connected to other inputs such as laptop computers.
The third sound system is a complete mixing panel connected to the house speaker amplifier with a separate amplifier driving the Yamaha monitor speakers on stage, and with a snake capable of 16 mike or instrument inputs.
We are covered by three music licenses BMI, ASCAP, & SESAC.
Pictured above is the dance hall taken from the stage showing the dance floor, (hardwood throughout the hall), the mixing panel station, hanging small lights, and lockers at the far end for repeating renters).
Pictured above is the dance hall taken from the opposite end showing the dance floor, (hardwood throughout the hall), the stage, hanging small lights, and a mirrored wall.
Hall is air conditioned in the summer.
We do not have a full kitchen on site, but welcome your caterer of choice, whether commercial or family. The social area has electrical plugs above two long tables for crock pots or food heaters. The picture above shows this area set up by caterer (Chef Michael Ouellette) for New Years Eve Party.
We have our own private entrance to the hall, with handicap accessibility thru the main building entrance and passenger elevator in the center part of the mill building. There are additional rest room facilities throughout the main building.
There are tables and chairs available at no cost. Additional seating can be arranged.
We also have a second hall which is 25 x 45 feet (1000 ft2), connected thru the social area. This hall has its own lighting, small stage, sound system and a mirrored wall.
The two halls are further divided by the Square Dance Foundation of New England (a museum and archive for square dancing memorabilia). It also serves as a buffer between the two halls so that both halls can be used simultaneously.
Receptions and parties of any kind, including weddings, anniversary, showers, Jack & Jill’s, holiday events
Meetings - from small groups to large
Dances - school dances, square dances, round dances, country/line dances, aerobics, ballroom
Workshops or classes - anything, from dance to information
Off-premises business meetings
Social groups or Fundraisers
Youth Group, Scout, or school events
The Mill-A-Round is located on Commercial Street in Manchester in what used to be Mills 4 and 5 of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company textile mills. This and the adjacent mills built during the time Manchester was being incorporated as a separate town (originally Derryfield) in New Hampshire at the site of the Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River. Both the town and the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company were incorporated in 1810.
The mills came on bad times around 1930 and were finally closed in 1935. Many of the mills were torn down local merchants saved several by incorporating the Amoskeag Industries. Amoskeag Mills 4 and 5 became Waumbec Mills Incorporated.
This building went through several hands over the years including Berkshire Hawthaway, Inc. in the mid 70's as the building was leased out to various companies including Vertical Dreams.
Bob and Eileen Silvia began to construct the hall from open space in 1992. They left the ceiling open to the original woodwork to capture the flavor of this historic building. Everything, including an office and dancer rest area was located in the single room with the dance floor. At that time the Mill was in tough shape with most windows broken. They had the windows and heat/air conditioning installed and installed the stairwell to the outside where the receiving dock was. They set the nails and refinished the floors which started at 25 X 90 and soon expanded to 50 X 90 (one large hall). There was no bathroom in the space and our dancers would walk through the abandoned and unused remainder of the building to use the bathroom in the middle of the 2nd floor.
In October 1996, Norm Poisson bought the lease from the Silvias and the next year expanded into the adjacent area providing new space for his office, a break room, and bathroom. No more long treks to the other end of the building for relief! This opened the dance hall from an original "L" shape to a full rectangular dance hall. The remaining space in other half of the expanded area was walled in with it's own entrance and subleased to the New England Square and Round Dance Foundation. Norm added the bathrooms, a second hall and the current stages.
As an aside: Eileen and Bob Silvia moved to Orange County in California and have opened the Cedarbrook Dance Center in Garden Grove California near the Crystal Cathedral and 4 miles from Disneyland. Cedarbrook has 2 halls with hardwood floors, 2549 square feet and 5200 square feet respectively.