With help from the New Hampshire Grange and others, the leaders of a project that began in Vermont have identified more than 30 town halls and other sites in New Hampshire with painted theater drapery. Preservation advocates in towns that include Bradford, Franklin, and Colebrook have been working on reviving these reminders of a time when every small town was visited by traveling troupes of players, opera companies, vaudeville performers, and itinerant musicians.

Between 1880 and 1940, curtains such as these were produced in other states, but it seems that the great majority were discarded as they became worn and dirty, and as tastes changed. Fortunately, in Vermont many curtains were simply bundled up with baling twine, or stashed in ceiling crawl spaces, or shoved under the stage.

Christine Hadsel, director of Curtains Without Borders, and the leader of Vermont's statewide initiative, said that by bringing the curtains back into use we rejuvenate small town performance and meeting spaces. "We have seen an increase of local theater and the re-use of town halls for town meeting," connected with drapery restoration, she said.
Fadesel and others are eager to launch a statewide theater drapery preservation effort in New Hampshire.