Executive Board
Meeting / Marlow Historical Society / Thursday, October 2, 2008 / 6:30 PM,
Chapel
Maria Baril, Mary Blank, Gen Ells, Loisanne Foster, Pam Little, and Candy
Wiggum were present.
Loisanne read the Secretary’s Report which was accepted as read.
Mary gave the Treasurer’s Report.
We currently have $2,508.25 in our several accounts. The report was accepted
as read.
OLD BUSINESS:
The cemetery tour at the West Yard Cemetery will take place on Oct. 18th at 1:00 PM. Loisanne, as Hepzibah (Mack) Tubbs will highlight the graves of Hepzibah’s uncle, Nathan Huntley; store owner, Nicodemus Miller and his son Bethuel; The Reverend Eleazer Beckwith, Marlow’s first hired preacher; Mary Gustin, wife of Samuel Gustin, Marlow’s early hero; Solomon Gee, Marlow’s first mill owner, and Hepzibah’s husband, Abisha Tubbs who conspired with Hepzibah’s brother, Solomon Mack, to spread the knowledge of making salt peter (an ingredient in gun powder) just before the Revolution.
Board members verified their sign up times for setting up and manning the MHS booth and parking the vintage cars as well as overseeing the art show and the display of model Marlow homes for the Harvest Festival.
Gen Ells, with the help of volunteers Johanna Kent and Mary Blank, has seen to gathering all of the known examples of the Ronnie Lake miniature Marlow home models. They will be assembled at the Chapel for viewing during the Harvest Fest and set up to approximate their positions in the village. The owners have graciously agreed to loan them for the occasion.
Our application with extensive documentation on the Burnap House has been sent to The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance “Seven to Save” Program. With an anticipated several hundred applications and only seven to be chosen, it’s a long shot, but we feel we need to explore every avenue to save this historic building for Marlow. Pam Little has graciously assumed the lion’s share of this large project. We received a letter from New Hampshire Preservation Alliance acknowledging our submission.
Al Blank, Tom Fuschetto, and Sharon Davis joined Mary in meeting with a representative of the Painted Theater Curtain Company that seeks to locate these historic stage curtains in Vermont and over Vermont borders and help their communities restore and preserve them. The representative spent three hours evaluating the curtains and informing, and advising. Marlow has six painted curtains. Only one, the European street scene at Jones Hall, is restored. There are three others there, a woodland scene, a water scene, and a “grand curtain.” These, we are told, are produced by a company. However, the two at Murray Hall (the Grange) which had been found wadded up under the stage when it was removed, are by the artist Charles Washington Henry (1880-1940). He, with members of his family, traveled from town to town to paint such curtains. Because of this, these two are more valuable. One shows horses and a wagon. The other shows a Model-T Ford. They are painted on muslin and the word is that “Mice don’t like muslin.” It is to this that we owe their preservation! There are also three rollers for the curtains at Murray Hall. To display the curtains, however, we will need pulleys and ropes. We tabled any decision on the curtains.
The remaining three Liberty Elms should be planted this fall. Two Highway Department members will help. Maria and Pam volunteered to help, and Candy will put in fertilizer spikes.
We discussed the benches that Richard Frank wishes to place on the Common in honor of Lydia Stevens. He wants to remove the two benches which are there and replace them with grander benches facing each other. We discussed the technical difficulties of this. Candy suggested that we propose to him two benches beside the Grange. Since, with the coming freeze, little can be done until spring, we tabled the discussion.
We discussed the Town Pound Sign and the Murray Hall sign which we propose to put in place soon, perhaps in the spring. Gen Ells indicted that they should match in design. The man who has done our signs in the past has gone out of business, so we need to find a new sign-maker. This too was tabled until spring.
NEW BUSINESS:
We decided not to have a booth at Christmas on the Pond this year as it is too labor-intensive for the benefits to the organization.
Of course, we will be doing our holiday program at Jones Hall on Dec. 6, and Loisanne will write the third in a series of Marlow “Radio Skits”.
Once again, Rudolph will appear, and, this time, so will Alice Britton, our popular Marlow stage coach/school bus driver. We are lining up the music. Jason Little will perform in that department, and we are hoping Kate and Clay will help us again as they did two years ago, to the delight of all.
Pam Little discussed possible NHHC programs with the principal of Perkins School and she will get back to Pam about which one they would like us to sponsor. Our past choice for such a program was not available, so we are trying again. We wish to reach out to Marlow’s children to help them develop an understanding and appreciation of history. In that light, we will be thinking about museum tours for them when our museum reopens in the spring.
The meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM.Respectfully submitted,
Loisanne Foster, Secretary