English: General en:John Stark House, Manchester, NH; from a 1906 postcard. Located 2 miles north of city hall beside the Merrimack River on River Road, the almost 100-acre farm of the late general was acquired by the state to create a "house of reformation for juveniles and female offenders against the law." Construction began in 1856 on the main building at the complex. It was nearly destroyed by fire in 1865, at which time the Stark house, one of the settlement's earliest homes, was used as a temporary shelter. It also would go up in flames.