2023 Award Winner: Webster Historical Society
For restoration of Old Webster Meeting House
Partners: Wet Basements Solution | Decatur Company | James L. Garvin, PhD | Woodhams Carpentry | Lorden Builders | JLT Painting
This important building is one of four 18th-century meeting houses in New Hampshire that remain in nearly original condition. Built in 1791 as the Westerly Meeting House when Webster was still part of the Town of Boscawen, it was used for both religious and town meetings.
The Society for the Preservation of the Old Meeting House in Webster, NH (now also known as the Webster Historical Society) was formed specifically to rescue the building from destruction by the Blackwater River flood control dam in 1941. The building was moved to higher ground and the Society has been its stewards ever since.
After a two-year effort by retired state architectural historian James Garvin to diagnose destructive levels of moisture in the building, the Society installed a vapor barrier in the basement and embarked on a major fund-raising campaign to remediate the moisture-caused damage.
With support from LCHIP, the town, a N.H. Preservation Alliance/1772 Foundation grant, an Americana Corners grant, and many individual donors, all 42 windows (84 sashes) were conserved. About 90% of the clapboards on the east and west sides of the building were preserved, and the badly deteriorated cladding on the north and south sides was replaced in-kind with quarter-sawn clapboards. Deteriorated exterior trim was consolidated with wood epoxy where possible rather than being replaced. The entire exterior building was then painted to preserve the recent work.
The Society painted the structure in 1955-7, 1959, 1979, 1987, 1992, 1999, 2002, and 2007. It re-roofed the building in 1959, 1970, 1989, and 2008. It repaired clapboards in 1979. It repaired and painted window sashes in 1970, 2006, and 2020.
Over 80 years after the Society’s rescue of this rare survivor, this award celebrates the recent high-quality diagnostic and stewardship work and the Society’s commitment over time.