Thank You for Celebrating Our 80th Anniversary!
Thank you to all the alumni, faculty, staff, students, and community partners who joined us on November 12, 2025 to honor 80 years of educating and supporting our Queen City neighbors. Your presence helped make this milestone truly special!
We’re proud of how far Manchester Community College has come since its start as the State Trade School Manchester in 1945, and we’re grateful to celebrate the legacy we’ve built together.
Relive the evening—including step and repeat photos—by visiting our full photo gallery:
A note from President Paul Beaudin about the 80th Anniversary:
Thank You to our Corporate Event Sponsors!
- Anthem
- Bar Harbor Bank & Trust
- Delta Dental
- Elliot Hospital
- Eversource
- FIRST
- Hitchiner Manufacturing
- Lavallee Brensinger Architects
- Longchamps Electric
- Macy Industries
- Mainstay Technologies
- MCC Advisory Board
- New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association
- Nordson Medical
- Pike Industries
- PROCON
- Sheehan Phinney
- St. Mary's Bank
- Wire Belt
MCC's History in Images
1945
The college first opened in 1945 as a school for returning World War II veterans. “State Trade School Manchester” was housed on the first two floors of a former shoe factory in the Cohas Building (below) at 252 Willow Street.
1947
In less than two years, the Cohas building was sold and the school found a new home at the unused Webster Street School. The City of Manchester and the State of NH provided funding for renovations, and the Amoskeag Corporation donated an adjacent vacant lot to provide space for additions.*
1947-1965
For its first three decades, MCC was true to its trade school roots, offering programs including automotive, building construction, electronics, machine and tool design, sheet metal and welding.
1966
HVAC was added in 1966 when the college relocated to its current address at 1066 Front Street.
1960’s-2010
The college continued to expand over the years, adding programs like nursing, graphic design, education and business. Workforce development training programs were also added.
2010-2013
Between 2010 and 2013 improvements to labs and classrooms were completed to support programs like automotive technology, welding and metallurgy. The student center was also built.
2013-2025
More recent improvements include the 2017 addition of the Susan D. Huard Advanced Technologies building and expansions to programs like advanced manufacturing, computer science, liberal arts and ongoing workforce development training benefiting industry throughout the state.
*Some of the above captions cite information from The Development of Industrial Arts and Vocational Education in New Hampshire, by Clifton H. Dustin, 1965. Dustin was the first principal of “State Trade School Manchester” and served until 1959 when he retired from “NH Technical Institute Manchester” – just two of the eight different names that Manchester Community College has been known as over its 80-year history.
Share Your MCC Alumni Story
Alumni stories will be featured as part of our celebration. Did you transfer to a four-year college after graduation? Go on to a successful career?
Please email Vicky Jaffe, Director of Marketing & Development, to let us know what Manchester Community College means to you!
MCC Historical Photos Slideshow
We dug through the archives, uncovering some great photos that we just couldn’t help but share!
