Photograph of Edward Wagner, father of Ottilie (Wagner) Hosser, for whom (along with his wife, Wilhelmina) Wagner Memorial Park in Manchester NH was originally dedicated, and from whom it derives its name. From The Mirror’s Pictorial Manchester 1846-1896.
Wagner Memorial Park is a well-landscaped park with a Greek-revival monument and benches, located in the Arts & Cultural District of Manchester, New Hampshire. The park was created on an entire block of land (one and one-half acres) located between Prospect, Myrtle, Maple and Oak Streets. Before it became a park it was part of a larger farm belonging to the Weston Family.
The land was given to the city by Ottilie “Matilda” (Wagner) Hosser to honor her parents, Edward & Wilhelmina (Seelig) Wagner. According to a history article written in 2012 by Aurore Eaton, and published in the Union Leader newspaper, when Ottilie died in 1944 her will offered the land to the city along with $150,000 to build a memorial park to her parents that would be a place of “peace and love,” a reminder of the friendship between the German American people. Aurore notes in her article, “Understandably, the city was reluctant to make these feelings known while the park was being constructed in 1944 and 1945, in the middle of World War II.”
