Voters Show Support for Preservation at March Town Meetings

This year, while fears of contagious illness postponed some voting or led to sparse attendance at town meetings, there were some notable historic preservation and community development successes in March.  Each year, the N.H. Preservation Alliance helps communities save and revive landmark buildings and help direct investment and stewardship initiatives. The organization tracks votes to connect with local issues and explore trends.

Two big wins top the statewide scoreboard-- the Meredith Public Library in the Lakes Region, and Sanborn Seminary in Kingston.  These landmark structures, both listed to the National Register of Historic Places, and both previously named to the Alliance’s Seven to Save endangered properties list, will now receive significant new investment in rehabilitation and reuse.

The Meredith Public Library will continue to service its community thanks to both private and community-approved funding.

Voters in Meredith have been debating the fate of their Benjamin Smith Library for years, but last year they approved $400,000 for design and this year, they overwhelmingly endorsed a $5 million bond to renovate the existing building and construct an 8000 square foot addition.  Private contributions to the project will reduce the approved funding request by more than $650,000.  In solving a complicated design challenge, all seven existing levels of the library will be made ADA-compliant, enabling the library to continue to serve its community from a prominent and accessible downtown location.

Sanborn Seminary in Kingston, the only high Victorian Gothic style high school remaining in the state, hasn’t been used in decades, but the combined Kingston/Newton school district needed time to make a decision about its future. As approved by voters, the district will sell it for $200,000 to developer Eric Chinburg who intends to invest at least $8 million to turn it into a complex of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments.  The sale was made contingent on the town’s adoption of RSA 79-E, the downtown revitalization tax incentive, so that the rehabilitation can receive local property tax credits.  Chinburg also plans to take advantage of federal preservation tax credits, which require adherence to strict preservation standards.

The Sanborn Seminary in Kingston will see new life as an apartment complex thanks to private investment.

“Both these projects will support local jobs and offer other community development benefits,” said Jennifer Goodman, director of the Preservation Alliance. “Of course, our families’ and communities’ health is the most important thing right now,” she said, “but it’s good to be reminded of these opportunities to add to the positive feelings, character and economies of our towns and cities.”

Elsewhere, votes to support historic town-owned structures were for more modest sums, and adding to Capital Reserve Funds seems to be a popular strategy to incrementally fund larger projects.  Alton voted $50,000 to replace a lift that accesses their town hall’s second floor and to set aside an additional $14,000 for general improvements to that late 19th century brick building.

Gilmanton’s Old Town Hall, no longer used for town government, was the subject of two articles on the ballot: one for $97,000 to plan, design and restore the Old Town Hall, provided that an equal amount is raised from grants and private donations, and a second companion article that would authorize the selectmen to sell the building if either component of the previous article’s funding structure were to fail.  Both articles passed.

Webster will appropriate $15,000 to restore the windows in their 1791 Meeting House, with a $5,000 contribution pledged from the Webster Historical Society. 

The Libby Museum in Wolfeboro is one the most recent success stories for the town - included in a recent vote to secure funding for upkeep and upgrades.

Wolfeboro, with a couple of high-profile Main Street preservation successes in recent years (Town Hall, Seven to Save 2009; and the Pickering House, Seven to Save 2015) fully supported three preservation-related articles. Voters agreed to establish a capital reserve fund and set aside $300,000 for repairs and renovation to the town-owned Libby Museum; to approve use of $95,000 held in a capital reserve fund for the purpose of matching an LCHIP grant that would help fund conversion of an 1872 Freight Storage Shed into a model railroad museum; and to spend $25,000 for a feasibility study for renovation of the 1897 municipal electric generation building as a community center. 

Preservation Alliance director Jennifer Goodman believes that voters later this year will be making careful choices about what they want to invest in.  Structures have to be meaningful to townspeople, plans have to be carefully developed, and budgets have to be realistic. Often that means phasing a project, or raising private money to match public investment, she offered. 

After its impending demolition, historic photos such as this will be all that remains of the Belmont Meetinghouse.

In Ashland, another attempt to persuade voters to purchase the historic and handsomely rehabilitated Ashland School for a town library failed. And in Belmont, the historic Corner Meetinghouse will be demolished to make way for a new facility for the Police Department which voters approved at town meeting, a practical decision that nevertheless means the loss of a unique and valuable asset.

“Using preservation tools can often help tip the scales in favor of preservation,” notes Goodman.  “Towns are recognizing the value of incentives like the local preservation tax incentive, RSA 79-e, and the benefits of State Register or National Register listing, often a first step in obtaining a Mooseplate or LCHIP grant. There is local option legislation on the books that can help individual  property owners obtain  tax relief for investments that enhance a historic building’s embodied energy and energy efficiency or resiliency,” Goodman says, but it’s under-used and we’d like to see that change.”

The Preservation Alliance offers assistance to local advocates throughout the state to help formulate plans for saving historic structures and to optimize chances for success.   

The Preservation Alliance is New Hampshire’s only statewide nonprofit devoted to leadership, education and advocacy for historic preservation. “The 2020 townwide votes made this month, and that will be made in coming months, reflect not just fondness for old architecture, but also a growing recognition that preservation investments help protect local property values and stimulate social and