Here We Are!
by Meg Gardner
It had finally happened: after several years and endless meetings, the School Board of MSAD#6 and the Board of Directors of BHHS negotiated a lease joining their disparate goals for the future of the 1912 Bar Mills Elementary School. The Buxton-Hollis Historical Society, having had a peripatetic lifestyle since its inception in 1970, had saved an historic building that was threatened with demolition and had found a home that they hoped would be permanent. The School Board had relieved themselves of the responsibility of demolishing an old building that needed revitalizing and for which they no longer any useful purpose.
Although the old school was structurally sound, the interior needed to be completely renovated in order to make it suitable for use by BHHS as a museum and library. There were also several substantial capital projects that needed immediate attention. Additionally, all of the books, documents, and artifacts that BHHS had collected over the years, most of which were being stored, had to be moved from several different locations to the “new” building. There was no question about the work involved. This was an enormous undertaking for a relatively small organization.
The poet Alexander Pope wrote in one of his poems that “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Many, if not most, thought that this might be the case with this new project. In spite of the challenges, and taking a deep breath, BHHS members prioritized projects and work schedules. Buxton and Hollis community members, many of whom had not been active with BHHS until then, joined in the effort. A small army of volunteers came together and devoted numerous hours of often very hard work into rehabilitating the building.
In addition to the hands-on volunteers, generous financial contributions, both initially and continuing, have made it possible to hire necessary craftsmen and professionals and to purchase or to donate needed materials. One of the biggest initial boosts to the project was the faith shown by the board of Narragansett Number One Foundation. Jan Hill, BHHS President, knew that the project needed grant support along with fundraising to make some of the capital expenses possible. The first of these immediate needs was the installation of a new boiler and water heater. She submitted a grant for this purpose to the Foundation during the negotiations with the school board, when the outcome was still uncertain. Narragansett Number One Foundation awarded the grant contingent on BHHS’s ability to acquire the building within the year. This initial support, and a matching grant from Maine Preservation, served as impressive and crucial impetus for the project, verifying the determined support for repurposing the building.
The lease that was signed with MSAD#6 on April 30, 2013, was for a four year renewable term (in accordance with State law). We were advised to continue to move forward with the expectation that the lease will be renewed for as long as BHHS has need of the building, provided that both we and the School District maintain its terms. We are now entering our fourth year with that expectation and the time has come to reflect about what has been accomplished over the past three years and what remains to be done in order to assure that the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society will remain in this beautiful place for a very long time.
Let’s enumerate some of our major accomplishments. That first summer was brutal. It was very hot, and some of the most labor intensive and frankly unpleasant work had to be completed. This entailed tearing down partitions and pulling up carpeting that was adhered to the hardwood floors. The first floor rooms were to be used for the research library, office, museum store, and community room. Lowered ceilings had to be removed, tin ceilings and walls needed to be patched, and everything needed repainting. The community room trim and some wainscoting needed to be reproduced and replaced. The handsome woodwork downstairs was stained and coated with polyurethane. Hardwood floors needed to be sanded and refinished. A new kitchenette tucked into an existing closet required plumbing, shelving, and a counter. New electric outlets were installed. Old florescent ceiling fixtures were replaced with reproduction school house lighting. Attic windows and some cellar windows were replaced and a new boiler and water heater was installed. Although contractors were hired when necessary, all of the demolition, patching, painting, cleaning, and much of the carpentry was done by volunteers. All of this work was completed that first summer!
Work continued during the spring, summer, and fall of 2013 in spite of a very busy series of programs, dozens of genealogical queries that we researched, and many visitors to the library and museum. Community members responded to our opening with donations of wonderful artifacts and memorabilia. The library and museum artifacts needed to be accessioned, a fascinating but time consuming job! Again, volunteer workers contributed considerable time and talent to these projects. In the midst of this purposeful activity, building rehabilitation continued into 2014-2015. We added fourteen new windows; installed attic insulation and replaced roof supports; redecorated two bathrooms; created a larger handicap entrance with more direct access to our community room; replaced the handicap entrance door unit, and continued to rehabilitate more rooms on the second floor. Recently, slate black boards on the second floor have been exposed, removed, cleaned and replaced. Nearly 4000 hours of volunteer time has been recorded to date in building rehabilitation alone. This figure does not include the countless hours spent researching, accessioning, writing, programming, and all of the other activities that are necessary in developing an effective permanent history center.
We have been very fortunate in having a number of young people step forward to offer their help in various ways. Their presence and enthusiasm is always a delight. A particularly important task was replacing the decking of the handicap-accessible ramp. Daniel Smith chose replacing the ramp decking (along with painting a second floor room) as his Eagle Scout project. He and friends he recruited worked long and hard removing the old ramp decking, soliciting local business for necessary materials, and providing the manual labor to make sure that this special entrance to our building is safe, meets ADA guidelines, and looks good. He will be back this spring/summer to finish staining. All of us are very proud that he is an Eagle Scout and grateful that he selected BHHS for his project.
Other young people who have volunteered and have provided us with many hours of support are Lily Carter, a wonderful, friendly, enthusiastic and very helpful Jill-of-all-trades; Patrick Stanley, who was a great assistance answering the phone and helping with various projects; three friends of Lily's who assisted us with our Annual Meeting dinner preparations; and Wheaten College student Asa Rubin, who did a wonderful job staining trim and painting the ceiling and walls of a second room during his Christmas break. We are grateful for the interest and energy of these young people who share a respect for history. We hope that their volunteer experience with us has encouraged them to follow their interests and to continue volunteering throughout their lives.
Until now our priorities have been mostly self-evident. Now, we need to take time to breathe a bit more and to reflect about our future. This reflection needs to consider our pending and future building preservation and collection growth needs. We need to continue to focus on the creation of our first major exhibit "All Roads Lead to Bar Mills,” as well as to plan future exhibits. Our goal is to spend meaningful time this year beginning to purposefully envision long term activities. After all, it was Confucius who said, “Study the past if you would define the future.”
So, here we are. A lot has been accomplished, but there is more to be done. Interestingly, the most rewarding aspect of the new face of the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society is not just a list of accomplishments, as proud as we are of those. It is rather the sense of community that has been engendered, the appreciation for those who have worked so hard in all spheres in the past to build our communities, and finally, and probably the most important, all the fun that we have had and continue to have as we work together to grow and celebrate this special place.
It had finally happened: after several years and endless meetings, the School Board of MSAD#6 and the Board of Directors of BHHS negotiated a lease joining their disparate goals for the future of the 1912 Bar Mills Elementary School. The Buxton-Hollis Historical Society, having had a peripatetic lifestyle since its inception in 1970, had saved an historic building that was threatened with demolition and had found a home that they hoped would be permanent. The School Board had relieved themselves of the responsibility of demolishing an old building that needed revitalizing and for which they no longer any useful purpose.
Although the old school was structurally sound, the interior needed to be completely renovated in order to make it suitable for use by BHHS as a museum and library. There were also several substantial capital projects that needed immediate attention. Additionally, all of the books, documents, and artifacts that BHHS had collected over the years, most of which were being stored, had to be moved from several different locations to the “new” building. There was no question about the work involved. This was an enormous undertaking for a relatively small organization.
The poet Alexander Pope wrote in one of his poems that “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Many, if not most, thought that this might be the case with this new project. In spite of the challenges, and taking a deep breath, BHHS members prioritized projects and work schedules. Buxton and Hollis community members, many of whom had not been active with BHHS until then, joined in the effort. A small army of volunteers came together and devoted numerous hours of often very hard work into rehabilitating the building.
In addition to the hands-on volunteers, generous financial contributions, both initially and continuing, have made it possible to hire necessary craftsmen and professionals and to purchase or to donate needed materials. One of the biggest initial boosts to the project was the faith shown by the board of Narragansett Number One Foundation. Jan Hill, BHHS President, knew that the project needed grant support along with fundraising to make some of the capital expenses possible. The first of these immediate needs was the installation of a new boiler and water heater. She submitted a grant for this purpose to the Foundation during the negotiations with the school board, when the outcome was still uncertain. Narragansett Number One Foundation awarded the grant contingent on BHHS’s ability to acquire the building within the year. This initial support, and a matching grant from Maine Preservation, served as impressive and crucial impetus for the project, verifying the determined support for repurposing the building.
The lease that was signed with MSAD#6 on April 30, 2013, was for a four year renewable term (in accordance with State law). We were advised to continue to move forward with the expectation that the lease will be renewed for as long as BHHS has need of the building, provided that both we and the School District maintain its terms. We are now entering our fourth year with that expectation and the time has come to reflect about what has been accomplished over the past three years and what remains to be done in order to assure that the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society will remain in this beautiful place for a very long time.
Let’s enumerate some of our major accomplishments. That first summer was brutal. It was very hot, and some of the most labor intensive and frankly unpleasant work had to be completed. This entailed tearing down partitions and pulling up carpeting that was adhered to the hardwood floors. The first floor rooms were to be used for the research library, office, museum store, and community room. Lowered ceilings had to be removed, tin ceilings and walls needed to be patched, and everything needed repainting. The community room trim and some wainscoting needed to be reproduced and replaced. The handsome woodwork downstairs was stained and coated with polyurethane. Hardwood floors needed to be sanded and refinished. A new kitchenette tucked into an existing closet required plumbing, shelving, and a counter. New electric outlets were installed. Old florescent ceiling fixtures were replaced with reproduction school house lighting. Attic windows and some cellar windows were replaced and a new boiler and water heater was installed. Although contractors were hired when necessary, all of the demolition, patching, painting, cleaning, and much of the carpentry was done by volunteers. All of this work was completed that first summer!
Work continued during the spring, summer, and fall of 2013 in spite of a very busy series of programs, dozens of genealogical queries that we researched, and many visitors to the library and museum. Community members responded to our opening with donations of wonderful artifacts and memorabilia. The library and museum artifacts needed to be accessioned, a fascinating but time consuming job! Again, volunteer workers contributed considerable time and talent to these projects. In the midst of this purposeful activity, building rehabilitation continued into 2014-2015. We added fourteen new windows; installed attic insulation and replaced roof supports; redecorated two bathrooms; created a larger handicap entrance with more direct access to our community room; replaced the handicap entrance door unit, and continued to rehabilitate more rooms on the second floor. Recently, slate black boards on the second floor have been exposed, removed, cleaned and replaced. Nearly 4000 hours of volunteer time has been recorded to date in building rehabilitation alone. This figure does not include the countless hours spent researching, accessioning, writing, programming, and all of the other activities that are necessary in developing an effective permanent history center.
We have been very fortunate in having a number of young people step forward to offer their help in various ways. Their presence and enthusiasm is always a delight. A particularly important task was replacing the decking of the handicap-accessible ramp. Daniel Smith chose replacing the ramp decking (along with painting a second floor room) as his Eagle Scout project. He and friends he recruited worked long and hard removing the old ramp decking, soliciting local business for necessary materials, and providing the manual labor to make sure that this special entrance to our building is safe, meets ADA guidelines, and looks good. He will be back this spring/summer to finish staining. All of us are very proud that he is an Eagle Scout and grateful that he selected BHHS for his project.
Other young people who have volunteered and have provided us with many hours of support are Lily Carter, a wonderful, friendly, enthusiastic and very helpful Jill-of-all-trades; Patrick Stanley, who was a great assistance answering the phone and helping with various projects; three friends of Lily's who assisted us with our Annual Meeting dinner preparations; and Wheaten College student Asa Rubin, who did a wonderful job staining trim and painting the ceiling and walls of a second room during his Christmas break. We are grateful for the interest and energy of these young people who share a respect for history. We hope that their volunteer experience with us has encouraged them to follow their interests and to continue volunteering throughout their lives.
Until now our priorities have been mostly self-evident. Now, we need to take time to breathe a bit more and to reflect about our future. This reflection needs to consider our pending and future building preservation and collection growth needs. We need to continue to focus on the creation of our first major exhibit "All Roads Lead to Bar Mills,” as well as to plan future exhibits. Our goal is to spend meaningful time this year beginning to purposefully envision long term activities. After all, it was Confucius who said, “Study the past if you would define the future.”
So, here we are. A lot has been accomplished, but there is more to be done. Interestingly, the most rewarding aspect of the new face of the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society is not just a list of accomplishments, as proud as we are of those. It is rather the sense of community that has been engendered, the appreciation for those who have worked so hard in all spheres in the past to build our communities, and finally, and probably the most important, all the fun that we have had and continue to have as we work together to grow and celebrate this special place.