Seven valiant souls ventured out of the comfort of their lairs to attend this meeting: Del Porter, Bob Canada, David Fessenden, Susan Laub, Eric Jensen, George Winters, Peter Webb. As always, the public is welcome. Membership is not required. An interest in the story of the place we call home is recommended.
Last month’s minutes, such as they were, were deemed adequate. The Treasurer’s report was accepted. Of note were lifetime membership fees paid by two out-of-state descendants of the family of David Wright, and early Brookliner. Welcome home.
One mission of the BHS is to rescue local artifacts from oblivion, so that they can be preserved and shared with others. Peter Smith of Hollis kindly assisted us with the donation of an unusual curved two-man ice saw. The understanding is that the saw was used to separate stacked blocks of ice that had frozen together in the icehouse.
Eric has shared his draft plans for a shed-style roof over the back door of the barn. He is in communication with both the fire department and the building inspector and will do what’s necessary for the approval of the plan. In preliminary prep, he single-handedly dug the holes for two sonotube footings. We were excited to hear that he will donate a 4 x 6 piece of old cut granite for the landing outside the door. However, the massive stone will require some heavy equipment. He is hopeful that he can enlist help. In his conversations with town officials, he’s learned that the permitted capacity of a standing crowd in the main floor of the barn would be 92, 75 at tables, and 50 more downstairs. Eric also pointed out the step-up from the ground to basement floor at the garage doors and recommended some hardpack to level the area.
David Fessenden donated the organizational ledger of a long-gone but once-thriving organization known as the Muscatanipus Fish and Game Club. There is a brief mention of the group in Hall’s town history, but this record greatly increases our knowledge of the creation and activities of the club that existed from 1935 to 1966. They had a building on the west side of a pond in the hollow at the base of Averill Road. Thank you, David.
Conversation moved on to the collective memories and tales of two interesting Brookliners from days past, Willard Cummings and Alton Jensen. It is hoped that their stories will be preserved.
Peter will work up some recommendations for the BHS membership program. The next meeting will be 6/9 at 7:00 PM. He will take care of snacks.