Sizeable Amount Goes To Tilton
The Land and Community Heritage Investment Program awarded $4.1 million in matching grants to natural resource and historic resource projects during a ceremony on Nov. 19. Among them were $180,000 to help with the preservation of the Tilton Mansion and $17,000 for a technical study on the preservation of the Island Park Bridge in Tilton.
Some of the other grants were $124,875 for the Wentworth Congregational Church; $75,000 for the Stillhouse Forest in Northfield; $38,500 for the Moose Mountains Reserve; $38,100 for the Webster Meetinghouse; $32,775 for the Willing Workers Hall in Warren; $23,000 for Canterbury Shaker Village; and $21,000 for a Gale School Planning Study in Belmont.
Each of the grants must be matched by local funding.
The Tilton School will use its LCHIP grant to help with the restoration of the unique mansard roof of the mansion it had purchased in 1962. Built by Charles Elliott Tilton in 1863, the original portion of the mansion is in the Mansard of the Second Empire style, with hipped roof. The remainder of the building carries more Gothic features.
Charles E. Tilton was a major figure in Tilton and neighboring Northfield, having placed a series of statues throughout the town that carries his name, while also building the Tilton Arch in Northfield, fashioned after the Arch of Titus. He intended to be buried beneath the arch after achieving his dream of annexing Northfield as part of the town of Tilton, but the union of the two towns in different counties did not happen, and Charles Tilton was buried elsewhere.
The Tilton family continued to reside in the mansion until selling it in 1952 to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Powers. They planned to turn it into a nursing home but, instead, operated a boarding house there until selling it to the Tilton School, an independent, co-educational boarding and day school that began as a seminary. Today, Tilton School teaches through a customized learning process called the Mastery Approach.
In 2018, the school received a $9,250 LCHIP grant help study the needs and prioritize the options for the Tilton Mansion, which currently serves as faculty housing and a library and arts center.
The latest grant, which is being matched by the Masiello Family Foundation, will assist in protecting and preserving the historic character of the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Head of School David Thiel commented, “We’re excited by LCHIP’s investment in the Charles E. Tilton Mansion. We know how important the mansion is to the town and its history, and this grant will help Tilton School preserve the mansion for the benefit of the entire community, both on campus and off.”
Down the street from the mansion is the Tilton Island Park Bridge, built as a gift from Charles E. Tilton in 1881. According to the town, the bridge “is an exceptional combination of cast- and wrought-iron truss bridge design. Fewer than 75 of this kind of bridges remain in the U.S.”
The town of Tilton received a $17,000 grant to help pay for a planning study to provide the technical information necessary to preserve the historic structure which spans the Winnipesaukee River. The bridge connects the Tilton Downtown Historic District to Tilton Island, which is the locale for popular summer concerts and picnics.
Wentworth Congregational Church
Situated on the Wentworth Common, the town’s 190-year-old Congregational church is undergoing renovations to restore the first floor and basement. Trustees Richard Borger, Wayne Decotis, and Glen Wyman issued a statement in appreciation of the $124,875 LCHIP grant to help with the preservation project that they said “was necessitated by an unforeseen building alteration undertaken over a century ago.”
A previous LCHIP matching grant of $175,000 allowed the trustees to repair the sills and foundation of the church, and they say “this investment will guarantee this building will stand proudly far into the future and be a continuing asset to the town of Wentworth.”
The Wentworth Congregational Church was built in 1829-30 in the Federal style. Like many churches of the period, it served as a venue for both religious and municipal services; the original Wentworth Meeting House burned in 1828. However, in response to the Toleration Act of 1819, which required that municipal and religious services must have separate venues, the church was divided into two floors in 1887. It continues to serve several municipal functions today.
The church also houses a Hook & Hastings pipe organ, built in 1878 and installed in the church in 1949. Hook & Hastings, based in Boston, Massachusetts, was considered the premier organ-building company in the United States in its day, operating until 1935.
The church was added to the New Hampshire State Historic Register in 2017.
Moose Mountains Reservation
LCHIP awarded a $68,500 matching grant to the Moose Mountains Reservation to help procure an additional 171 acres of property in Brookfield and Middleton. Managed by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the reservation contains 2,475 acres of the more than 7,000 acres of nearly contiguous forestland lying between the Lakes Region and the Seacoast.
Willing Workers Hall
The Willing Workers Society, a nonprofit community service organization operating in the unincorporated community of Glencliff within the town of Warren, plans to use its $32,775 grant to help restore its hall, which needs a new roof, as well as reinforcement of the foundation, restoration of the original windows and doors, the construction of a handicapped-accessible ramp, and the painting of interior and exterior walls and ceiling.
“We are extremely grateful LCHIP recognizes the importance of restoring this historic building constructed by the Society in 1920,” said Treasurer Deb Dickman. “We still need to raise funds to upgrade the electrical service, install a heating and cooling system, install a septic system and functioning bathroom, and restore the wood floors. LCHIP’s grant has given us a great start for our $94,000 restoration project.
The Willing Workers Society sponsors cultural events, sells homemade wears, and provides community services, “creating a feeling of comradery partially lost in the age of electronics,” according to members.
When the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance listed the hall as one of its 2019 “Seven To Save” properties, it noted, “In 1921 — seventeen years before electricity came to the village — the hall was electrified for movie screenings. During the Great Depression, the hall served as a social outlet for nearby East Warren Civilian Conservation Corps workers. Several corps members volunteered to act in plays and help serve suppers.”
Canterbury Shaker Village
The $23,000 LCHIP grant for Canterbury Shaker Village will support a building assessment to identify and prioritize the necessary restoration work for each of the 30 buildings in the village.
“This is a great grant to have been awarded,” said Leslie Nolan, the village’s executive director. “We are enormously grateful to LCHIP and to Village supporters who met the match to support this buildings assessment. It will be a road map for us as we restore and maintain our buildings.”
Canterbury Shaker Village, which preserves the work and traditions of the Shaker religious sect that once operated several villages in New England, received an earlier LCHIP grant in 2018 to assist with the preservation of the Turning Point Pond, a key feature of both the landscape and the industrial history of National Historic Landmark District.
Gale School
Already buoyed by the success of its move from the Shaker School District to a parcel of land at Concord Street, supporters of the historic Gale School in Belmont received another bit of good news this year when the LCHIP Board of Directors awarded $21,000 for a planning study on the future use of the building.
Built by Cyrus Norris in 1894, the Napoleon B. Gale School served generations of Belmont students before the Shaker Regional School District built a new elementary school in 1985. The school district used the building mainly for storage after that and was considering razing the building when a group of residents formed the Save Our Gale School Committee in 2006. The group obtained a 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation to help it raise funds to preserve the historic building, and finally located a tract of land off Concord Street that was only 1,200 feet from its location behind Belmont Middle School.
Last August, Geddes Building Movers of Bow moved the building to its new site, and Lakes Region Community Developers purchased it for $1, with the intention of restoring the building and doing renovations to make it suitable for services such as a day care and senior center.
The LCHIP grant will help LRCD plan for its transition from a school to another useful community venue.