The Day the President Came to Town
Little Theatre of Manchester at Cheney Hall
Manchester
Nov. 10, 2026
Monday night at the Little Theatre in Manchester was a night to honor one of Manchester’s greatest storytellers – oh, and the first president of the United States.
Walter Scadden, known as Walt by the community, was a Manchester Renaissance man known for many talents, from serving as a Marine during the Cuban Missile Crisis blockade, to serving as a firefighter to help protect his hometown, to blacksmithing and ironworking much of the metalwork seen around Manchester. But first and foremost, he was a storyteller, having written books, stories and many plays for Pine Street Players and the Little Theatre.
Scadden passed away in 2025, but his legacy was very much alive during Tuesday's staged reading of his work The Day the President Came to Town. The reading featured the Pine Street Players, supplemented by family and friends of Scadden. Day tells the story of Nov. 9, 1789, when President George Washington, on his way from Boston to New York, stopped in present-day Manchester at the Woodbridge Tavern. Scadden had hoped to do a full production of the play, so the reading was as much about honoring him as George Washington.
Not much is known about what was discussed that day, other than a terse diary entry Washington made about the varying quality of the land in “Et. Hartford,” as the area was known at the time. From that starting point, Scadden let his imagination run wild, penning an hour-long play about the conversations the president had with the townspeople, including the blacksmith working to fix his damaged stagecoach, grumpy men complaining about taxes and the family that owned the Woodbridge Tavern.
The tavern provided the setting for the play’s scene stealer, a young lady named Grace Donner. She played Electa Woodbridge, the precocious daughter of the tavern owners. Electa is thoroughly unimpressed by Washington, questioning his fitness to lead the new nation (“You seem pretty old to be president,” she quips) and sharing her ideas for how things should be. She defiantly takes Washington to task for the government denying women the right to vote. Donner is made for the spotlight, with energy and enthusiasm beaming out from her as she held her own against adults with many years more experience.
Scadden was known for taking interesting, forgotten moments in Manchester’s history and spinning them out into entertaining stories. I became familiar with some of his other works after the show ended, as the audience shared memories of the impact Walt had on all of them. He’s the playwright behind Murder in Manchester and 100 Days of Combat, among other works.
The evening drove home the reality that “community” is the most important word in community theater. Cheney Hall was packed, something I’ve never seen before for a play on a Monday night. Of course they were there to be entertained, but it was really all for Scadden and the people he loved. His widow spoke at the very end, thanking her children and grandchildren for participating in the reading.
“Thank you all for the opportunity to keep my husband alive,” she said. Walt Scadden does indeed live, through the arts he loved to share with others.
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