1-14-2006
Restoration Lifts Off at Walpole Historical Society
By Charles C. Bingaman, Contributing Writer
Workers Friday lifted off the cupola and bell from the roof of the 1831 Walpole Academy Building on Main Street, headquarters since 1950 of the Walpole Historical Society, as part of a $275,000 restoration of the 175 year-old structure.
Society President Sue Vose announced that about $175,000 has been pledged or raised to date including a donation of $25,000 in a matching fund from one very generous Walpole citizen. “So,” she said last week, “We need to raise or borrow—probably some of each—about $100,000” to pay for the entire job.
MacMillin Company of Keene is handling most of the construction replacing the foundations under the front columns and part of the columns themselves that have rotted and suffered from termite and ant attacks over the years, repairing the stone foundation, shoring up internal supports for the roof and stabilizing the walls of the back portion of the building that was added in1907, and restoring the structure and cladding of the cupola so the bell can be re-hung securely and even ring once again. In addition, the painted tin roof of the clapboard structure supporting the cupola will be replaced with a rubberized material, and the full building itself will receive a new roof of architectural shingles designed to look much like the former slate roof slate roof similar to the one to be removed in a few weeks.
While it was long known that the 1907 addition was underbuilt and had had some contemporary shoring up work, one person examining it this time suggested that the rear portion of the building had been only “standing by habit” for some time.
On Friday a large MacMillin crane crept up the hill to the Academy Building—in reverse—inched its way around to the parking area on the south side and extended its telescoping arm high above the building to deftly hook onto cables attached to the cupola and, later, the bell, and lifted them up and lowered them down, ever so gently, to wooden platforms waiting for them on the ground. There, the reddish painted tin roof of the cupola, now pockmarked with the ravages of more than 150 Walpole winters, will be removed and replaced with copper cladding by experts from the Melanson Company in Keene, hopefully to serve for the next 150 years. In addition, the curved wooden internal structure of the cupola that Assistant Site Superintendent David Dick Friday called “remarkable” will be replaced where rotten and otherwise restored prior to being put back atop the building after the new roof is installed in February or March. Thereafter the bell, dated 1840 and inscribed with the name George Holbrook, will be hung in a restored frame for future use.
The roof committee consisting of Gerry Galloway, Dennis Marcom, Ben Brungraber, Guy Pronesti, Bob Kimball and Susan Vose continue to supervise the project.
Vose also announced last week that the Walpole Historical Society Annual Meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 8 at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall and that the speaker would be one or more representatives from the MacMillin Company who will update and answer questions from members on the building project.
