Widespread Support for Community Landmarks at March Town Meetings
Significant Preservation Planning and Investment Tools Adopted As Well
Significant March Town Meeting wins across the state for historic preservation projects signaled citizens’ new and renewed commitment to community landmarks as well as new preservation planning and investment tools. Positive votes supported renovation and rehabilitation for town halls and libraries, restoration and stabilizations of town-owned historic barns, stewardship of historic town clocks, and continued support for building funds, historic societies, and other community landmark restoration projects.
The Town Hall in Wilton will receive funds for a repair project.
Strong messages about these projects’ benefits, new federal funds for community development and some generous private donations were important ingredients in these historic preservation successes. “We don’t have all the data from the Town Meeting season yet,” said Jennifer Goodman, executive director of the N.H. Preservation Alliance, “but it looks like the New Hampshire preservation community is batting close to .1000.” The Preservation Alliance had listed many of these voted-on properties on its Seven to Save endangered properties list in the past, and assisted many of the project leaders with coaching, referrals and funds for building assessments and planning analysis. Goodman and colleagues believe that the results are part of a trend of incremental strengthening of the preservation movement over the last decade as well as a jolt provided by the pandemic and other worldwide factors encouraging people to consider what’s important to them from their past and for their future.
Advocates for three properties secured major funds for projects that have taken several years to come to fruition. In Epsom, voters approved funds to renovate the historic Town Hall and Meetinghouse for use as town offices and records storage. Advocates had rescued the Meetinghouse from demolition and moved it near the Town Hall to save it. Bradford residents voted to support a $2.6 million renovation and restoration of the historic Town Hall and established an expendable trust fund for matching grant funds. In Dunbarton, a $697,485 warrant article passed to renovate and access the second floor of the 1909 town hall library building which has been unused for three decades.
Community involvement through volunteer work and public events helped to pass a larger budget for the Hinsdale Historical Society.
To get these kind of projects going and care for them over time, voters in other towns endorsed funds for both planning and stewardship. In Hollis, a former school building that has been mothballed for over a decade now has funds for a full engineering assessment and cost analysis to restore and renovate the building for potential office and community space. The Preservation Alliance had listed the Farley Building to its Seven to Save list when its future was uncertain and has provided guidance on its reuse. Harrisville residents voted to repaint the exterior of their town hall. Webster approved a petition to provide $9,000 for ongoing restoration and painting of the historic meetinghouse. Wilton added funds to its Capital Reserve Funds (CRF) for a town hall repair project. Windham continued support for repairs to the tower of the Searles Building and the town hall.
On the planning front, Stratham adopted a zoning overlay for its Portsmouth Avenue/Route 30 corridor known for its history, agriculture and commercial pressures; it’s considered the first neighborhood heritage area in the state. Swanzey and Boscawen adopted the Community Revitalization Tax Relief Incentive RSA 79-E program, and the town of Wolfeboro voted to hire a consultant to carry out a town-wide historic resources survey.
A majority of voters cast votes against restoring a landmark dam and preserving its four-centuries-old landscape in Durham despite a petition initiated by a friends group seeking dam repair and signed by more than 1,000 residents. The petition brought the issue to the voters after the town council advanced dam removal. Historic dam stakeholders are sure to revisit the complex issues that surround dam decisions in the future with aging structures and new federal funds for repair, retrofitting and removal. Issues include historic and scenic landscape protection, new potential for hydro power, the role of dams in pollution mitigation and real estate issues, and desire for fishway restoration.
Here are some additional snapshots of Town Meeting citizen commitment to history and historic preservation:
·Town-owned barns received major support at March Town Meetings. Hopkinton residents voted to borrow $272,000 to stabilize the Houston Barn, and the residents of Kingston voted to appropriate $55,000 to restore the foundation, sill, and roof of the Grace Daly Barn. In Exeter, voters approved improvements to the Raynes Barn to match support from LCHIP and, in Hollis, residents advanced the restoration of the White Barn on Woodmont Farm. The Preservation Alliance provided planning assistance in three of these cases.
·Town clocks will continue to mark time in Pembroke and Westmoreland. Voters in Pembroke reaffirmed their commitment to the care and maintenance of their Town Clock with the vote to continue the long-term lease agreement of the Main Street building that houses the clock and to fund the repairs to the Town Clock Tower and mechanism from the Town Clock Capital Reserve Fund. In Westmoreland, voters approved funding to restore the town clock and added to capital reserve funds for other Town Hall repairs.
·Town Meeting funding for heritage organizations include Ashland Historical Society’s Whipple House Museum, Gorham Historical Society and 1907 Depot Museum, Lancaster Historical Society, and Winchester Historical Society. In Hinsdale, the Selectmen had decreased the proposed line item for the Hinsdale Historical Society from $15,000 to $10,000, but preservation advocate and vice president of the Hinsdale Historical Society, Sharron Smith successfully argued in support of the larger budget citing the efforts of volunteers, the public events, and the work going on at the property as support for why the historic resource needed town support.
Towns including Belmont and Kingston voted to add money to town Heritage Funds that can be used for education, planning and property acquisition and protection.
Milton residents voted to acquire the historic Milton Mills building from the Milton Historical Society for $1 and lease it to the organization for a period of 10 years. New Durham’s 1772 Meetinghouse committee received $5,000 for their CRF for the restoration of the 2012 Seven to Save listed resource showing the town’s ongoing commitment to restoring the community landmark.
·Former school buildings are being acquired and repurposed for other town uses. The 2007 Seven to Save-listed Ashland School will be purchased with funds from an anonymous donor after residents voted to support the petition warrant article, eight years after they were first considering whether or not to acquire the same building for $950,000. In contrast, Allentown’s former elementary school building will be acquired for $1 with the purpose of renovating for use as the Town Hall and/or community and recreation center, a project supported by the Town Select Board. The voters in Allenstown also voted to create a CRF and add $100,000 to the fund to renovate the former school building for new uses.
North Hampton residents voted to expand and renovate the town’s Tudor Revival, 2014 National Register-listed former library for $1.5 million ($469,638 from federal ARPA funds). The building currently is home to the town offices. Other libraries receiving attention from voters this year included Littleton for roof repair and replacement. Salem voters added $110,070 to the library CRF. Warner’s library appropriation was amended from $69,000 to $93,000 for repairs and renovations to the Richardsonian Romanesque-style building.
Preservation is considered the “original green” or “recycling” because of its emphasis on use of local labor and materials and the embodied energy associated with the building’s original construction and maintenance over time. Studies show that historic preservation activity attracts and retains young people and businesses, and heritage visitors stay longer and spend more than other types of visitors. The labor-intensive nature of rehabilitation work supports good-paying jobs and keeps more money circulating in local economies than new construction.
Want to offer an additional Town Meeting profile, correction or addition? Please email us at projects@nhpreservation.org.