Vol. 2, No. 4                                                                                         May 2007

June Meeting Recap

The spring meeting of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum was held at the Jaffrey Civic Center on Thursday the 21st of June, with 15 people attending representing 13 organizations. The meeting was hosted by the Jaffrey Historical Society.

The morning consisted of our traditional roundtable gathering to collect and share ideas and contacts to help grow and promote our local history. One exciting piece of news came from the Laurel Powell representing the Hinsdale Historical Society. The Hinsdale folks are in the process of launching a campaign to purchase and preserve the Ebenezer Hinsdale property. This wonderful yet enormous opportunity includes the restored 1759 Hinsdale homestead and 37 acres of farmland, forests, and river frontage on the Connecticut River.

After our brownbag lunch we toured the Jaffrey Civic Center. This community used building is the home of the Jaffrey Historical Society, and houses its archive and exhibit space. The spacious building is also use for meeting and local art exhibits. After our Civic Center tour, we walked to the old Park Theater. Led by Rob Stephenson, we toured the old theater that was closed about 1975. A community group is in the process of raising funds that will restore and reopen this wonderful building to help serve the region's cultural and civic needs. While on our walk, the group also learned more about Jaffrey's downtown history and the restoration of the former textile mill.

We give a big thanks to Richard Boutwell, president of the Jaffrey Historical Society, for arranging this spring meeting and for all the other Jaffrey members who helped make this meeting rewarding and fun.

Meetinghouse Open House

During the Roundtable meeting, the group decided to go forward with a meetinghouse open house event, with a tentative date of Sunday October 14th between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. The meetinghouse sub-committee for the collaborative meetinghouse project will meet in early August to begin organizing this event.

The basic idea is to have participants open their meetinghouse to allow visitors to view and learn more about its history. Each community will prepare its own programs for the event. If you would like to participate in this meetinghouse open house, please let Tom Haynes know as soon as possible. Contact him at 352-1895 or dired@hsccnh.org.

Next Collaborative Project

A lengthy discussion occurred during the Roundtable meeting on the topic of the next collaborative project. Due to the success of the meetinghouse exhibit and publication there is strong interest in creating another project to promote our local history. Schools, Taverns, Libraries, books and printers, Mills and mill life, and Summer Camps were topics all discussed. The group decided that the next exhibit and publication will be on libraries, books, and printers. We are tentatively planning on a completion of this project in 2009, to allow ourselves plenty of time to prepare.

If you would like to serve on the subcommittee that will organize and design the exhibit and publication, please contact Tom Haynes at 352-1895 or dired@hsccnh.org.

Fall Roundtable Meeting in Troy to Focus on Railroads

The fall meeting of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum will be held on Thursday October 18th beginning at 9:30 a.m. in Troy. The restoration of the Troy depot is nearing completion. To help celebrate this accomplishment, the fall Roundtable meeting will focus on the different aspects of railroad history in Cheshire County. Details for this meeting will be announced in the September newsletter.

AHSNH Directory Update

The Association of Historical Societies of New Hampshire is updating its helpful directory. If you have not returned the directory information form that was recently sent to your organization, please take a few minutes to respond so your organization will be represented in the new directory. If you need a form, please contact Tom Haynes at HSCC.

Roundtable Forum at Newport History Fair

The Monadnock Historical Societies Forum participated in Reliving New Hampshire's Past, a history fair hosted by the Newport Historical Society on Saturday June 2nd. Although the turnout for the fair was less than expected, the networking with the other participants was helpful and informative.

We wish to thank Neil Jenness, Jan Carpenter, and Carin Torp for all their efforts in creating and hosting the booth during the fair for the benefit and promotion of the Roundtable Forum.

Contact & Web Site Information

For all questions or concerns regarding any aspect of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum, please contact HSCC's Tom Haynes at 603-352-1895 or dired@hsccnh.org. Please remember to post and share this newsletter with your members. Also, please remember to submit your events for posting on the Roundtable Events page of the Roundtable Forum web site.