News

At its Annual Meeting November 9th at Runnells Hall, The Tamworth Historical Society officially launched its three-year campaign to renovate the c. 1830 Hall-Dyer House as headquarters and to house its collection. The extensive renovation will result in a lively, interactive Tamworth History Center that will be a valuable new resource for the town and the area. The goal is to have at least two rooms open to the public in time for Tamworth's 250th celebration in 2016.

This annual meeting was our best-attended to date. A fun feature was story-telling by attendees after dinner. Old days in all parts of town were recalled by Dave Bowles, Charlotte Dyer, Dannie and Betty Wasson, and David Goodson, with additional connections supplied by Greg Titherington, Kate Thompson and others. And young videographers Mercedes Hemmer and Andrew Tucker (Big Feat Productions) caught much of it on camera—a good start to a year in which THS plans to do more with Tamworth oral history, as we approach our Town 250th.

THS is proud of the new Village Green created at the corner of Main Street and Great Hill Road in the center of Tamworth Village. THS’s project to raise and re-grass the front lawn at the historic Hall-Dyer House was completed October 31.
THS plans to share this new outdoor gathering place with other community groups. A set of guidelines and affordable fees for use are being developed. The space should be useable by some point next summer. Think yard sales, craft demos, ice cream socials, band concerts, auctions, and croquet matches!

The project was made possible by a generous matching grant from the Gibson-Woodbury Charitable Foundation of North Conway. We are very grateful to Mark Butterfield and the Foundation board.
Local contractors Paul Power, David Halpin and Vincent Cook worked hard preparing the site. Wayne Lloyd and his crew did all of the excavation, filling and site prep with speed and efficiency. The Maine Turf Company rolled out the sod and trimmed it in half a day. All of these contractors generously donated a portion of their time and materials.

Thank you to THS board member John Wacker, who envisioned the potential of this location, and coordinated the project.

A big thank you from THS to the nine students and two teachers from Cornerstone Christian Academy in Wolfeboro who worked with us for several sunny hours October 17, on a school community volunteer day. They cleared rocks from the future Village Green, tacked plastic around the foundation with Ron Remick, and helped Dannie Wasson build and put up a sign.

A Village Green

This fall THS will raise, level and re-grass the big front lawn at the Hall-Dyer House,
bordering Main Street and Great Hill Road in Tamworth Village. We are very grateful to
have received a $10,000, 50-50 matching grant from the Gibson-Woodbury Charitable
Foundation in North Conway for our ‘Lawn-Raising’. Several local contractors have
kindly offered to do the work at reduced rates. This project will make the lawn safer, more attractive, and more useful to the community. In addition to using the space for THS events, we’d like to make this central location available to other groups. We’ll need to ask for event insurance, with THS as an added insured, and we’ll develop a set of simple rules for use. Think yard sales, cookouts, parties, craft demos, band concerts, auctions, and croquet matches! Maybe some of the celebrations for Tamworth’s 250th, in 2016, could take place on this new Village Green!

Kate Thompson

Realizing the need to better organize our collection, and to move it out of the Hall-Dyer House in preparation for the renovation, in February we hired Emma Schroeder and Courtney Spalding-Mayer to help us for a few hours a week. Computer-savvy, young and strong, they worked with Curators Bobbi Carleton, Joan Casarotto and Bob Cottrell to improve the accuracy, completeness and user-friendliness of our digital records. With Kate Thompson they carefully moved many items to secure storage sites kindly donated around town. To heft the larger items, Bruce Robinson generously loaned us his team: Adam Robinson, Michael Octavek and Greg Repucci.

This project is not finished, but we’ve made a wonderful start. Big thanks to all who have helped and continue to.

A report by architect Norman Larson and structural engineer Jason Ross on the state of Hall-Dyer House, paid for 50-50 by THS and a grant from the NH Preservation Alliance, will be completed any day. The report will guide our renovation plans, and indicate estimated costs. We’ll keep as many old features as possible, while updating the building’s practical aspects.

Meanwhile, A&M Construction has just finished improving the back corner of the house: Skip Mason and crew replaced a section of clapboards, a porch and steps. Thank you to THS members who removed the old porch and concrete supports; and to A&M for their good work.

We are realizing that our front lawn is a spacious and under-utilized space in the middle of the Village. We hope to level it and encourage more community use. Perhaps we could host a Yard Sale? Have a village dance party? Hold an Antiques Appraisal Day under a big tent? Just ideas so far......Let us know yours!

Photo: Don Sutherland and Bob McLean label and number an item in our collection. We miss Don and wish him well in Nashua!

The Tamworth Historical Society’s August 14 event at Runnells Hall was packed. Tamworth historian Bob Cottrell presented his illustrated talk ‘Chocorua for Two Bits: The History of a View: Art, History and Nature’...

‘Two Bits’? Bob had been inspired back in January when the U.S. Mint released its latest ‘America the Beautiful’ series quarter, depicting our familiar and famous view of Mt. Chocorua.

Focusing on our side of the mountain and the lake, Bob told vivid tales of early painters and explorers, Abenaki rug-weavers, iron-workers, preachers, Civil War generals, a murder or two, Polar explorers, ice-harvesters, CCC camps, Pulitzer Prize-winners, geologists, Japanese gardens, botanists and birders!
Bob highlighted the little-known 1820s summit sketches of White Mountain School painter Thomas Cole, and the far-sighted preservation of ‘The View’ by Chocorua summer residents dating back to the 1880s.

The program was dedicated to the memory of longtime Chocorua historian Jim Bowditch. Sam’l Newsom’s wonderful Chocorua Village mural-scrolls, hung for the event by THS, were viewed with pleasure. A lively Q&A followed the talk.
Attendees also enjoyed perusing the 13 panels of THS’s Chocorua History display, created about ten years ago by Bobbi Carleton and Joan Casarotto, and bursting with photos, drawings, maps and engaging text. Many had fun filling out a little quiz on the panels’ contents.

The organizers of the annual Chocorua Day celebration had borrowed the panels; Chocorua’s Kent Schneider had thought up the quiz - inspired in part by the ‘Quistolio’, a booklet designed by Chocorua librarians Marion Posner and Myles Grinstead to stimulate children’s interest in local history. The Chocorua Community Association had laid in a store of the new coins, and a shiny quarter was given to all who completed the quiz!

The display and quiz were a big hit. To answer the quiz questions, many visitors took time to peruse each of the panels. “Oh! That must be our family living room as it was back then!” Marion heard one say. Another exclaimed, “I feel as if I’m at the Peak House! I’ll have to hike up to the site again, and breathe the air its visitors breathed!” Another: “There’s so much I didn’t know, even though I’ve lived here for years.”
The panels stayed at the library until October 10. 70 people completed the quiz, and received their Chocorua quarters!* This collaboration just kept snowballing! THS thanks our Chocorua friends for their initiative and imagination in bringing local history alive for all ages.

*Coincidentally, the Narrows Bridge was rebuilt this summer: for several weeks The View looked just as it appears on the coin!

The archivally-minded group of Bob McLean, Donna Whipple and Charlotte Dyer met weekly all summer to accession donated items. THS has received almost 900 items in the year 2013. Many of these are newspaper articles, photographs and pamphlets. Bobbi Carleton and her team had accessioned about 700 items by the end of June; the summer team added another 200. And our computer archiving system was updated in the spring by Emma Schroeder and Courtney Spaulding-Mayer, so every item is entered and cross-referenced. Now the fall team (Bob, Bobbi, Charlotte and Donna) is starting up again, meeting on Fridays. The accessioning job should be all done in plenty of time for 2014!

…is the motto of the Tamworth Historical Society, and we invite you to join us in celebrating our town’s past, present and future! Let’s start with a summary of what THS is up to as of October 2013.

We are excited about our current projects and activities. We’ll be reprinting The Tamworth Narrative, and completing a booklet on the town’s historic mills. We plan mini-displays at schools and libraries, perhaps at the Town Office or local businesses. We’re working on involving more young people. And we’re holding brainstorming sessions on our mission, purpose, and long-range goals.

In 2008 we bought the handsome 1830s Hall-Dyer House at 25 Great Hill Road, a lively, accessible location in the center of Tamworth Village, across from The Barnstormers and the future Tamworth Distillery. Once our building is renovated and open to the public, we picture an inviting museum with changing exhibits from our extensive collection, as well as ample space for storage, archives and research.

Last year THS raised funds to match a NH Preservation Alliance grant for a building condition assessment, and hired Norman Larson of Christopher Williams Architects and Jason Ross of HEB Engineering. Their report (due any day) will outline what’s possible structurally in the context of the building’s historic features. We aren’t planning a ‘restoration’, but a careful rehabilitation to maximize attractive, functional space. Meanwhile, we’re moving our collection into temporary storage kindly donated around town. Our regular programs and research will continue. (See calendar for upcoming programs.)

We will apply for a NH Charitable Fund grant to hire a fundraising consultant to help plan our campaign. We’ll be searching for local, state and national funding opportunities. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of our members and friends, and hope to inspire more of the same!

Perhaps you have enjoyed a recent THS program: Bob Cottrell speaking on the famous Chocorua view and new coin, Geoff Burke expounding on canoes, Ann Albrecht leading an exploration of mill sites. Maybe Joan Casarotto or Donna Whipple helped you research an ancestor. Did you hear Bob Newton’s ‘Geology of the Ossipees’ talk, or catch our Lyceum photo exhibit ‘Extraordinary Tamworth People’? Perhaps you’re new to town, have read Look to the Mountain and are just catching the Tamworth history bug. We are always looking for new board and committee members, volunteer help, and program ideas.

2016 is the 250th anniversary of Tamworth’s founding. Please join us in starting to think how to celebrate. As one of its birthday gifts to the town, THS plans to have the Hall-Dyer House at least partly renovated and open. We would love your help in meeting this goal!

Kate Thompson, THS President