Barre Historical Society

Society Events	Barre Stagecoach
About the Historical Society

BARRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P.O. Box 755
18 Common Street
Barre, Massachusetts 01005
978-355-4978
incorporated 1961
Always looking for new members excited about local history. Call for more information to join.

PROGRAMS / SPECIAL EVENTS
2008-2009

NOTES:Announcements in greater detail about each event will appear in the Barre Gazette (or in the case of the Holiday Party, via invitation). All Barre Historical Society meetings are open to the public. Refreshments worth coming for are served. Please help us preserve, study, display and retell Barre’s fascinating history.
December 13, 2009 Sunday	HOLIDAY PARTY AT HARTMAN’S HERB FARM at 1026 Old Dana Road, Barre Social hour, 4 p.m.; Buffet dinner, 5 p.m. Members, guests and potential members invited. $20 per person, payable to the Barre Historical Society, sent to Phyllis Allen or Edward Yaglou. Call for addresses.(978) 355-4978 Prior payment of dues is a must. Separate fee charged for event. Advance reservations required. No snow date, no refunds.
February 4, 2010 Thursday Snow date: Feb. 11	*THE HOUSEWRIGHT – HOW HE BUILT YOUR OLD HOME* with Tom Pettee at the Barre Town Hall 7:30 p.m. Tom Pettee is a restoration carpenter who will show us how the Colonial carpenter built homes from scratch. With printed guides from abroad, local buildings to copy, his array of hand tools, his skill and raw wood, the housewright fashioned architectural gems which we admire today.
April 1, 2010 Thursday	*SPIRITUALISM IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA* with Rob Cox at the Barre Senior Center 7:30 p.m. Rob Cox is the head of Special Collections and Archives at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The Spiritualist Movement began in upstate New York in 1848, when two young girls reported that the spirit of a departed peddler communicated with them through a telegraphic series of raps. The movement spread throughout the United States, laying down particularly deep roots in New England (home of the Salem Witch Trials two centuries earlier). Thus began a long succession of mediums, trance lecturers, writers and “auditors” who “tried out” the spirits, and for the better part of two decades, it was considered the fastest-growing religion in America.
May 6, 2010 Thursday	*ANNUAL MEETING* Featuring FAMILY HISTORY SHOW-AND-TELL at the Barre Historical Society 7:30 p.m. Bring interesting stories and pictures to share about your research into your family’s history. The time of sharing will begin with Mary Ellen Radziewicz sharing stories from behind-the-scenes of her genealogy research, including tips for getting started in Worcester County.
September 12, 2010	*A BROAD PERSPECTIVE: A TOUR OF GRACIOUS HOMES* Beginning at the Barre Historical Society and continuing to Broad Street 1-4 p.m. Admission charged (This is a fundrasier for the Society.) Following up on the successful “A Pleasant Stroll: A Tour of Gracious Homes” event in September, 2009, which featured historic homes on Pleasant Street, this second annual walking tour will highlight homes on Broad Street in Barre.

All Barre Historical Society meetings are free (unless otherwise noted) and open to the public. Please note locations (we cannot hold programs in the Historical Society building due to the lack of presentation space). Refreshments worth coming for are served following the program. Please help us preserve, study, display and retell Barre’s fascinating history.

The Barre Stagecoach

At first sight, the Barre Stagecoach is an awe-inspiring wonder - 9 feet tall, 15 feet long and 6 feet wide, it could hold as many as 12 passengers inside.

Barre Stagecoach During the mid- to late-1800s, stagecoaches were the primary mode of transportation throughout the state, carrying both passengers and mail. Barre was the center of North/South travel, with stage lines running from Worcester through Paxton, Rutland, Oakham and Coldbrook to Barre and on to Petersham and Athol. Later, coach lines ran to Greenfield and into Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Barre Stagecoach was made by the Abbot-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire in 1859, for a stage line based in Colchester, Connecticut. After serving the Providence/Boston route for many years, it was subsequently sold at auction in Boston to Austin Smith of Barre. While Smith owned the coach, it was frequently driven by his associate Ginery Twitchell, of Pony Express fame. After Austin Smith’s death and per his wishes, the stagecoach was bequeathed to Dr. George Brown of Barre, founder of the Elm Hill School and Dr. Brown’s Institution for Feeble-Minded Youth. Dr. Brown preserved the coach, using it for patient outings and for local parades and celebrations.

The stagecoach was donated to the Barre Library Association in 1963, and ownership subsequently p Barre Stagecoach Door Conservation Project assed to the Barre Historical Society. It was featured in the town’s Bicentennial parade in 1974 (the last time it was driven by horses), and again on a float during Barre’s 250th anniversary celebration.

Currently, the Barre Stagecoach awaits full conservation in a coach house built for its storage behind the Barre Historical Society. Like the rest of the Society’s collections, it is available for viewing by appointment by contacting the curator at 978-355-4403. This picture, of the Stagecoach door, is an example of the conservation efforts.

Anyone wishing to donate money to the conservation of the stagecoach efforts may send a check or money order to the Barre Historical Society, Post Office Box 755, Barre, Massachusetts, 01005-0755.

Christmas Flower Sale to benefit the conservation of the stagecoach, orders are due no later than Monday, December 1, 2008; flowers will be available for pick-up on Saturday, December 20, 2008. Call 978-355-4978 to place an order.

Easter Flower Sale to benefit the conservation of the stagecoach, orders are due no later than Tuesday, March 24, 2009; flowers will be available for pick-up on Sunday, April 5, 2009. Call 978-355-4978 to place an order.

About the Barre Historical Society
P.O. Box 755
Barre, MA 01005

The Barre Historical Society began in 1954, holding meetings in private homes and in the museum auditorium of the Woods Memorial Library. Through an arrangement with the library, the collections of the Society were housed in storage space there.

In 1961, the Historical Society was incorporated and the following year it purchased and moved into the Greek Revival mansion it now occupies at 18 Common Street in Barre. Today, the institution collects and exhibits books, documents, maps, textiles, furnishings and other objects large and small pertinent to the history of Barre. Church and school records, along with genealogical materials, are all contained in the Society’s beautiful headquarters.

The building, an 1836 Elias Carter design, is one of the few Greek Revival houses of quality, retaining most of its original detailing, that is open to the public in New England.

Originally, the central portion of the house was flanked on each side by one-storey wings. Around the turn of the century, a second-storey room was added on the south side, and later rooms were added to the rear.

The dwelling was originally built for Spencer Field, a well-to-do merchant and partner in the Woods & Field store which stood where the neighboring Tatman House is now (formerly the site of the Williams Block, destroyed by fire in 1956). Mr. Field lived here until the 1850s, when he encountered financial difficulties and left Barre.

Succeeding Field and just prior to the Civil War, Ezekial Bullard and his family moved into the house. This was a family of inventors. While living here, Bullard invented an improved butter churn, the hay tender, improved the harrow and patented a hay rake to ease the labors of farmers. His son, James Herbert Bullard, invented the palm-leaf loom. Palm-leaf hats were an important product of this town.

Judge John L. Smith acquired the property around 1900, and this is when the structural changes were made to make it suitable for two families.

Owning the house for more than half a century, Judge Smith sold the property in 1954 to Arthur Winters, an attorney who made many interior changes and returned the house to a one-family residence. In 1962, the newly organized Barre Historical Society purchased the building for its headquarters. It continues to own the building today.

The front foyer was renovated in 1982 as a memorial to Elisabeth Gariepy, one of the Society’s founders and its first financial officer. The graceful circular staircase is one of the distinct features of houses built by Elias Carter. Of particular note are the elaborate carvings over the front door, in the double parlor, and throughout the house.

To the left of the foyer as you enter is perhaps the most original room in the house, with its crown glass windows and folding interior wooden shutters. The room was redecorated and furnished in 2000 as a library by the family of the late Gabrielle Healy Carroll, devoted member, officer and curator of the Society for many years.

The double front parlor, which serves as a meeting room and changing exhibit area, is to the right of the foyer.

The smaller room to the rear of the parlor is now furnished as a Children’s Room. There are many early toys, games and dolls on display, as well as some reproduction games and toys for children to play with. This was probably a small bedroom when the house was first built.

The large middle room with fireplace and bake oven would have been the kitchen, where food was cooked and most other household chores would have been carried on by the housewife. Today, it is used as an exhibit room for household items from the Society’s collection.

Also in this room, the Society is fortunate to have the 19th century Town of Barre Standards of Weights and Measures, completely intact and original in their faux-grained cabinet. Also in this room, in a closet under the main staircase, is storage space containing original household materials from an earlier time. A corner cupboard next to the fireplace features antique china and cooking utensils.

Continuing on to the ell are the hospitality rooms (dining room and kitchen) and the Society’s office and file room.

In the dining room, a large Victorian display case holds the First Parish (Unitarian) Community Church silver service. The photographs on the wall in this room depict former presidents and other important individuals who have contributed much to the Society over the years.

The two front rooms on the second floor are open to the public. The room on the right as you ascend the stairs is dedicated to the late Albert L. Clark, former town historian and long-time member and officer of the Society. The files and cabinets in this room contain many of the manuscripts, documents and records pertaining to the early history of Barre. Across the hall is a refurbished period bedroom, where rotating exhibits of clothing and textiles are on display. Also on the second floor, in a closet to the immediate right at the top of the stairs, hand-blocked wallpaper original to the house is still in place.

Other rooms on the second floor (and not accessible to the public) serve as storage for clothing and other materials not currently on display; the curator’s office; and the Barre High School Room, where items, documents and pictures pertaining to that institution are stored. The third floor of the house is an attic.

Behind the main Historical Society building is the Coach House, a post-and-beam structure recently constructed to house the Society’s 1859 Concord Stagecoach (a brief history of same follows). Beautiful decorative paintings and other embellishments lie beneath layers of darkened varnish, and the Society is in the process of properly conserving this important vehicle. Also in the Coach House is a restored Yankee Hay Rake from the Chas. G. Allen Co., as well as photographs and other coaching and related vehicular memorabilia.

For more information about, or to join, the Barre Historical Society, please write to the organization at Post Office Box 755, Barre, Massachusetts, 01005-0755.