Mysterious Safe From the Past Stumps New Hampshire Residents

There are many mysteries in life. Many are eventually solved, but some are not.

This is the story of an unsolved mystery which likely will never be solved without a good blast of dynamite.

In 1912, the Orpheum Theater opened in downtown Dover, New Hampshire, with great success. Two years later, in 1914, an attached hotel opened with the same name, The Orpheum Hotel.

The theater was renamed The State Theater in 1935.  Throughout many years of success, both the theater and hotel closed in 1955.  It later became an auto parts store.

Fast forward to the age of the pandemic, when construction began.  Most of what now is the Orpheum Apartments of Dover, owned by Winn Companies, was once a block with the theater and hotel above, a house behind it, and a parking lot.

The developers created this full block of gorgeous living and work space, and in the demolition, found this safe in the basement as part of the original Hotel Orpheum.

They decided to make it part of the mystique of the new space, but not only couldn't open it, they also had to hoist the extremely heavy safe up five flights, which proved too much for even the burliest of men.   So they used a hoist to slowly move it floor to floor before landing up in the Take 5 Lounge on the top floor of the building.

So the mystery continues, as the safe has never been opened by people since the day it closed at the hotel. It may take more than a safe cracker to bust open this old gem, but then again, maybe it's best to leave it alone and let the mystique continue.