HARRISVILLE — To mark its 40th anniversary this month, Historic Harrisville will host an “Open Doors” tour Saturday, giving visitors a chance to see inside some of the key historical buildings in town.
“It’s a great way to see what’s been done with the buildings, how they’ve been restored, and what they’re being used for now,” said Jeannie Eastman, vice chairwoman of Historic Harrisville.
Historic Harrisville is a nonprofit organization that works to preserve the mill village as a thriving community after Cheshire Mills closed in 1970.
“The mill was a major source of income for a lot of Harrisville people, so after it went bankrupt and closed, several people got together and formed this nonprofit as a way to inject new life into the town,” Eastman said.
A small group, including David Putnam, Jim Putnam, John Colony Jr., John “Chick” Colony 3rd and Robbins Milbank, began exploring plans for the recovery of Harrisville.
“They had some choices — they could have tried to turn the town into a living history museum that told what it was like to live in a mill town,” Eastman said. “But, Harrisville was always a living, working, breathing town, and we wanted it to stay that way.”
Rather than turning the town into a tourist attraction the group bought six of the mill buildings and restored them so they could be rented, Eastman said.
Rental income would pay for the upkeep — taxes, heating bills, repairs — and at same time, it would provide employment opportunities in town, she said.
The group also started an affordable housing program so people who lived, worked and rented an apartment in Harrisville would get a 20 percent discount on rent, she added.
“It was a way of encouraging people to live and work in town,” Eastman said.
Slowly, the organization began acquiring buildings throughout the town, restoring them, and giving them new purposes, Eastman said.
Much of the mill and the original storehouses are rented out and used for storage today; the general store retains its original function; many of the old homes are still private homes; and a few of the buildings are rented as office space, according to Linda Willett, executive director of Historic Harrisville.
“Today, Harrisville Village is recognized nationwide as the best example of a working mill town,” Willett said. “It’s one of the only industrial communities of the early 19th century in New England that survived in its original form.”
The village was made a National Historic Landmark District in 1977, joining only two other sites in New Hampshire: The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough and Canterbury Shaker Village.
Ten of the historic buildings will be open for the free self-guided tours on Saturday, from 1 to 3 p.m., including the Cheshire Mills complex, the Cheshire Mills Boardinghouse, the general store, and the Twitchell House, which is the oldest building in the village, built in 1774.
“There will be a representative from Historic Harrisville in each building to tell visitors about the old function of the building,” Willett said. “It’s an opportunity for people to see inside buildings that aren’t usually open and accessible.”
It will also provide businesses in town with an opportunity to showcase what they do, Willett added.
“This organization set out to save the town, and they did it in a very creative and successful way,” Eastman said.
Information: Historic Harrisville at 827-3722, or historicharrisville.org.
10 comments:
Yes, this is a good example of what can happen in historic structures. One has to keep in mind that the names of the spearheads in the Harrisville project, are people with political and financial means. The word that comes to mind is clout. Some of those people are from manufacturing baronage legacy and can make things happen. Comparing Winchester and Harrisville is not quite the same equation in terms of needs and wants.
Very true, but there are people in Winchester with as you say clout and deep pockets that if they cared anything about the town, as they claim they do, they could spearhead an effort to help restore our downtown and bring in the types of businesses that would be an asset, not the kind that seek us out because we present the appearance of a poor trashy town that is open to anything.
The main reason most of the historical properties in town look so bad is not because owners can't afford to fix up their properties, it's because if they do, valuations go up and so do their property taxes.
With tax rates the fourth highest in the state already how in hell can anyone afford an increase? Until spending and taxation in town gets under control, no one is going to sink money into their properties unless they re foolish.
This is a joke, Right?. Winchester will never be a Harrisville or a Dublin or A Northfield or Deerfield Mass. A poor town with a higher than heck tax rate and you want us to worry about someones private property? Lets worry about getting more business in town, Lets worry about more single family homes, If we keep screwing around this house on main st will be another apartment building with 15 kids going to school. Very sad day with all the problems Wichester has people want to worry about calling old dumps our "heritage" and then giving them a fancy names that no one has ever heard before to make these dumps seem important.
Our Heritage is Old Mills, These places are what put everyone to work and built this town, I dont see anyone trying to bring these back.
In Winchester, when our economic situation improves, so will the desire to preserve. High property taxes are one of the major roadblocks to economic development. Beer pocketbooks don't pay for champagne appetites, while one of the most prominent buildings in town is full of welfare apartments. Let's get real.
As long as we have a corrupt, greedy, self-serving core of people running this town we will never have anything close to a Dublin or Harrisville or Northfield type of town. Our high taxes are due to these people who have lived off the sweat of taxpayers for their own personal agendas, this latest mess with Sharra and 71 Main is a prime example, another was Cole's doing across from Mr. Mike's. These people have been holding this town back for years, getting rich and making Winchester what it is today. Voter apathy keeps the cycle going and nothing will ever change until people realize that it's their own fault for the way things look and the way things are.
our Taxes are not high because of town officials and town employees. They are high because of a poor tax base, To many trailer parks, apartment buildings and section 8 housing for our little town and with these types of places comes a lot of kids Especially special needs to our school and this is where most our money is spent. And your right 71 main st is a great example, we have a business that can be there that will pay much higher taxes than the dumpy building is paying now and will not add kids to the school and will create jobs. If we keep driving away businesses and converting our single family homes into apartment buildings our taxes will keep getting higher. no one wants to come to our town and build a nice single family home anymore (the gravy of a tax base) and a certain few people want to keep driving away businesses so with this going on just plan on high taxes
Oh really, then explain to me why we pay unprofessional and untrained employees such high salaries and then give them the best health and medical insurance on top of it and they pay didly towards these benefits. Explain why our BOS has not laid off anyone, reduced spending or made any significant cuts in the budget and why they continue, year after year to hand out bonuses, give out raises and a cola to every employee in town. Explain why the continue to spend like drunken sailors if our tax base is so low and why prime real estate on our main throughfare was given up for three race tracks, a cement plant and other questionable businesses that don't bring in squat for tax dollars or provide nay jobs?
Ken Cole is the reason the block across from Mr. Mike's is low income, check your facts and the Planning and Zoning boards are to blame for 99% of the problems we have in this town with housing and they are of course the Selectman's dream teams, most hand picked. So tell me once again why the BOS and town employees are not the problem.
Look at the towns budget the school is what is killing us and the revenue coming in is way to low for what we have. There may be over spending elsewhere but the countless millions going to the school is the major problem. you can cut all the other budgets and it wont make a difference cut a couple million out of the school and you will see a huge difference.
Now add a dozen new businesses and factories and 50 to 100 200,000$single family homes homes with 2 or less kids and then we are talking about a good tax base.
To the party above; you really need to get a grasp of economics and stop smoking whatever it is you put in your pipe. Yes, the school budget is very bloated as is our town budget; but it's greed that has done this and voter apathy not necessity. As for all of these $200 k homes you see coming here, just who is going to build them and who is going to afford to buy them and more so where are you going to put them? More than half of Winchester's buildable land is in current use owned by the Con Com. Gus's private stash. Businesses,jobs, Winchester, none of that will happen with the people we have on our town boards, they like what we have become, their own private little enterprise lining their pockets while the rest of us squeeze to get by.
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