Commerce and industry (of sorts) was located everywhere in Windham in its earlier days. The property was bought by a blacksmith named Israel Hodgdon, Jr. He paid $350 for the real estate he purchased from William Hanson in 1806 and built a blacksmith shop and what was then a one-story house. Hodgdon sold the property to another blacksmith, and in 1815 it was sold again to Thomas Hanson. Washing machines were made here at one time. Known locally as the “Hanson House” the building has been used by Windham School Department since around the turn of the century, first as a boarding house for teachers up into the 1950s, and is now the offices of school management. This 200-year-old building originally sat a few feet away from where it is now located at the corner of School Road and Windham Center Road. (Information from the archives of Windham Historical Society.)