New Durham 1772 Meetinghouse

01/09/2026

I just plowed out the Meetinghouse if anyone wants to take advantage of our little January thaw and walk the trail.

12/25/2025

03/11/2025

In 2022, the Meetinghouse Restoration Committee decided to try and sell $1,000 “vanity stones” – like 12x16 granite graveyard markers, except with “personalized” messages to be placed PERMANANTLY on a 1750 historic site. This was the idea of a former member who had seen it used as a fundraising gimmick for a private gun club in Massachusetts.

It might be fine for private property of no historic value whatsoever, but it is a horrible idea for an actual 1750 historic site of recognized national importance.

First of all, it shows a stunning lack of knowledge of the history of the Meetinghouse and the character and moral values of the founders of our town. These people had strong community values and viewed narcissism and vanity as serious character flaws and sins, NOT something to be publicly celebrated. They would be horrified and disgusted to see this kind of self-centered egotism added to the Meetinghouse grounds.

Predictably, the first round of these vanity stones were enthusiastically endorsed and purchased by “The Club” of perennial local politicians that dominates our town government. They can’t to wait try and make themselves seem like they are important figures in town history. They are not.

See the attached photo of these stones – purchased by selectboard chair David Swenson, budget committee chair Terry Jarvis, town administrator Cecile Chase (Muirhead) and Restoration Committee chair Ellen Phillips. I have blocked one stone because I believe that this family was lied to about the appropriateness of the stones.

On that note, the Restoration Committee has shown itself more than willing to lie repeatedly to the townspeople if it meant selling a couple stones and pleasing Swenson and his buddies.

As founder of the Committee, I can tell you that we always knew from 2006 onward, that the entire six acre 1750 parcel was included in the National Register of Historic Places listing. It is even cited in the Committee Charter! But the current committee began lying about that fact, claiming that only “the Meetinghouse and the Pound” was included in the Listing, and that the rest was not included.

I guess they thought that if they downgraded and lied about the historic importance of the site, they could sell these ridiculous vanity stones and do whatever else they wanted with the rest of the six acres.

They are dead wrong. LCHIP told them in writing in January of 2023 that the whole site is protected. The NH Division of Historic Resources (DHR) told them in writing that the whole site is protected. They ignored both letters and kept up their lies to the townspeople.

I contacted the historians at the National Parks Service who oversee the National Registry. They coordinated with the NH Division of Historic Resources, and the entire Federal Listing was updated with new maps and photos, including ones that I supplied. Again – the ENTIRE site is included in the National Registry and deserves to be protected and respected as a historic site of national importance.

But that is not the end of the lies. About six months ago the whole Committee signed an article in the Baysider that was packed with even more lies.

The Committee claimed that LCHIP “Approved” the permanent placement of Vanity Stones on a historic site. The truth is far different. At the same January 2023 meeting in Concord with Selectmen DeCoff, LCHIP told them to limit any changes to the site to minor, temporary, easily removed ones, like the “Story Walk” that is there now. No Vanity Stones.

The committee also claimed that NH Div. of Historic Resources “Approved” the Vanity Stones. So, I called up the Deputy Director of DHR to find out if that was true. The answer was a loud and clear “WE DO NOT APPROVE” of vanity stones!

Nobody does. There isn’t a single Meetinghouse in all of New England that has been bastardized like that. Everyone else knows better. Eventually we will dig them up and get rid of them. We deserve Selectmen and a Committee who know how to STOP LYING, control their egos and respect our history.
Thanks, George Gale

03/09/2025

WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG TO RESTORE THE MEETINGHOUSE?
I’ve been asked why it is taking so long to get the Meetinghouse properly restored.

Over the past several years the Meetinghouse Restoration Committee has made a radical change in direction and purpose that puts the historical integrity and beauty of the building and site in great jeopardy.

In 2022 they filed an application for a $120,000 state LCHIP grant that was full of false and misleading statements. LCHIP gave the town the chance to correct or withdraw the application, but two of the three selectmen voted to go ahead with the application, so it was not withdrawn.

Not surprisingly, LCHIP completely rejected the application. The Meetinghouse was given zero dollars, New Durham’s reputation with LCHIP was damaged, and a year was wasted. When it was time to re-appoint members to the Restoration Committee, a majority of the select board refused to reappoint the Committee chair Cathy Allyn, who wrote the flawed grant application.

In 2023, David Swenson was re-elected and promptly re-appointed Cathy Allyn to the Committee. The Restoration Committee wasted the entire year of 2023 applying for a $915,000 State Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) grant to convert the Meetinghouse into a modern community center. This was not a historic restoration grant, and the plan was NOT to restore the building as townspeople have wanted for the past 20 years. Instead, it is a plan to modernize the building and site as if it had no historic value.

Their plan would have destroyed the beauty and historic integrity of the site forever.

“Highlights” included a $48,000, 12 foot high by 65 foot long solar panel display in the middle of the viewshed field where Benjamin Randall and others preached, $35,000 dollars worth of paving and a huge ADA ramp on the front of the building, a wellhead to the right of the front door, $175,000 for a 400 square foot addition on the back of the building, and a septic system with stink pipes in the grove of trees (to be cut down) between the building, the Town Pound and the Burial Ground.

The Committee falsely claims that the septic system placed where a grove to trees used to be would not be a violation of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. These Standards are the long-standing and nationally recognized professional standards for treatment of historic buildings and sites. LCHIP will never fund projects that don’t meet the Standards, and no reputable contractor will violate them either.

The truth is that we have known since 2006 when I founded the committee that we could never put a septic system there in the grove. My plan was always to leave it alone and perhaps use it as what it already is, a small outdoor amphitheater. The Secretary’s Standards require you to respect the entire site and not change
the topography, grade or nature of the setting of the historic structure. The Committee not only wanted a septic system there, they also wanted to bulldoze an ADA path straight through the grove from the building down to the field.

In August of 2023, the State Deputy Historic Preservation Officer and other DHR staff visited the Meetinghouse site and specifically told the Committee to stay out of the area between the Meetinghouse, the Pound and the Burial Ground. No changes are to be made in that area since it is so critically important in defining the historic character of the site.

In October of 2023, ignoring this completely, the Committee went ahead and brought in a Town backhoe to dig septic system test pits. They were furious when I happened to come by, catch them in the act and take photos. That’s when I called the NH Division of Historic Resources and found out the truth.

In November of 2023, the Committee filed the CDFA grant application with the false claim that the DHR follow up letter documented “their determination that the Community Center project fell within their guidelines and will not require further historical preservation oversight”. The letter said no such thing.

Thankfully, the Committee’s application was rejected for a wide range of reasons and the Meetinghouse has been spared - for the moment.

If that grant had been awarded, Swenson and the other selectmen would absolutely have gone forward with it and there would have been NOTHING that the townspeople could have done to stop them or the solar displays, paving, septic or other damage to the site. The Meetinghouse site would have been ruined.

This Committee has shown little real respect for the historic site or the absolute requirement to always follow the Standards, and sadly, they have shown us that they are willing to lie in order to get what they want.

In the past couple months, the Meetinghouse Restoration Committee has (with Swenson’s full approval) eliminated the word “restoration” from the Committee charge and even from the committee name! It is now just the “Meetinghouse Committee”.

Whatever their plan really is, it obviously does not include restoring the Meetinghouse. They are telling us that and we need to listen to that and understand it for the warning it is.

PLEASE VOTE THIS TUESDAY THE 11TH AT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO PROTECT THE MEETINGHOUSE

ARTICLE 13
Now they want another $25,000 for a bad plan. Sadly, we need to withhold funding until there is a legitimate, truthful plan to restore the Meetinghouse and protect the site.
PLEASE VOTE NO ON ARTICLE 13

ARTICLE 18
They want us to allow them to use the RESTORATION money we have put in the Meetinghouse Capital Reserve Fund for “REHABILITAION” which basically means they can COMINGLE FUNDS and spend it on whatever they want. There is no legitimate need to change the purpose of the Meetinghouse CFR.
If this warrant article is approved, the townspeople will have no real control over what is done at the Meetinghouse.
PLEASE VOTE NO ON ARTICLE #18

ARTICLE 20
This is really bad government – they want us to endorse the idea of borrowing money to fast-track a plan that they are not really willing to be open and honest about. This should concern everyone. Aside from borrowing money at a time of ridiculously high interest rates, it also means that we will be forgoing LCHIP grants that could save taxpayers up to 50% of the restoration costs.
PLEASE VOTE NO ON ARTICLE 20

Thanks for taking time to read this, please be sure to get out and vote this Tuesday, March 11th at the Elementary School.

George Gale

03/03/2025

THE BIGGEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN NEW DURHAM
Any conversation about the future of the Meetinghouse needs to start with an understanding that it is much, much more than just a “park”, it is an important and fragile historic site.

The original six acre parcel was laid out in 1750, and most amazingly, the whole six acres remains completely unspoiled 275 years later. That is rare and amazing when you consider how development has changed the face of New Durham. Better than this, we have added an acre to the site. We need to value and protect the historic integrity of the entire site.

It is a historic site because it was the original home of our town government. Our ancestors met in our Meetinghouse to discuss and vote on the affairs of the young town. In 1776, when a faraway King became oppressive, they gathered there in their new Meetinghouse to talk of revolution and a fresh start as our own country.

In 1861 they met there to discuss the issues that threatened to tear the new country apart in a looming civil war. One of the posts in the Meetinghouse still bears the faded remnants of a Civil War recruiting poster. Real history happened here.

But in between the milestones of those two wars an entirely new religious denomination called “Free Will Baptists” was formed up on the Ridge and found its first church at the Meetinghouse. It was not only the biggest thing to ever happen in New Durham, it was also New Durham’s biggest contribution to American history.

In 1780, Elder Benjamin Randall founded what was to become the Freewill Baptist Church. His new church was radical for the times in that it directly challenged the Calvinist belief in Predestination; the notion that God had already chosen who would be saved and who would be damned.

Randall believed that since God had given us free will, we have control over our fate and could choose to live a life that would lead to salvation. His ideas gave hope to people and Randall’s Free Will movement grew exponentially in those early years.

Randall rode on horseback as much as 2,000 miles a year to spread the gospel and form dozens and dozens of new Free Will Baptist congregations in towns throughout New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.

From 1792 into the early 1800s, the church began holding three and four day Annual Meetings at the Meetinghouse every June where as many as two or three thousand people would come to hear Benjamin Randall and other preachers speak.

In 1797, on a day that saw 3,000 people attend – far more than the Meetinghouse could hold – “it was thought best to repair to a field, where a sermon was delivered.” This would have been the same field we recently added to the Meetinghouse site. Just imagine 3,000 people at the Meetinghouse when New Durham was a village of perhaps 300 people! Amazing.

Members of the New Durham congregation and other locals opened their doors to the visitors for lodging and fellowship. Often the Elders of other congregations would bring many of their congregation members to New Durham with them where “meetings of worship were holden in different parts of the town; new cases of conviction and conversion were almost continually taking place.”

The impact of Randall’s movement and what happened at our Meetinghouse was felt on a national level in the years following Randall’s death in 1808. Free Will Baptists were strongly opposed to slavery and were vocal leaders in the Abolitionist movement. They also founded Bates College in Lewiston Maine in 1855.

In 1865 at the close of the Civil War, Storer College, one or the very first HBCUs (Historically Black College and Universities) was formed in Harper’s Ferry West Virginia by Nathan Cook Brackett, a Free Will Baptist pastor from Maine. It taught newly freed slaves how to read, write and do math so that they could survive in the free market.

There are over 2,200 Free Will Baptist churches in America and several hundred thousand members. It all found its start right in its first church here at the Meetinghouse. It’s the biggest thing to ever happen in New Durham, and we have a duty as stewards to be respectful and protect the historic integrity of all seven acres of the Meetinghouse site.

That means we don’t try and convert it into a modern community center, no hideous solar display panels in the field where Randall preached, no vanity stone shrines for the local politicians, and no septic systems placed where they will destroy the integrity of the site. Once you destroy the historic integrity of a site, you NEVER get it back.
George Gale

If you want to learn more, I recommend:
Life and Influence of Rev Benjamin Randall by Frederick Willey
The Life of Elder Benjamin Randall by John Buzzell

01/25/2025

Earlier today on the New Durham Community page there was a post asking about the Meetinghouse clothing donation shed at the transfer station. These questions keep coming up and I thought it was worth a separate post to try and properly answer it.

From what I see of the earlier responses, everyone has a bit of the truth about St Pauly, but not ALL the truth. I’m very familiar with this because I got involved in setting up the donation shed when the idea was first floated. Originally, the Meetinghouse Committee was hell-bent to put it on the historic Meetinghouse site. I believe that would have been very inappropriate and disrespectful and would also have attracted all sorts of illegal garbage dumping on an unmonitored site.

In order to protect the Meetinghouse, I worked with the transfer station manager at the time and the manager at St. Pauly Textiles. They were both more than happy to have it placed at the transfer station where it would get more traffic, be protected by security cameras, and not harm an important historic site. After a couple months, the Committee agreed.

Bob Bickford is right that the Committee works to maintain the shed between pick-ups and the town is paid a little over $2,000 a year based on a pay rate of some number of pennies per pound.

Bonnie Dodge is right in that all the clothing we donate is sold for profit. None of it goes to help local families. If that is your objective – please consider the Salvation Army store in Rochester, or perhaps a local church. If anyone knows of other places to donate to help local families, please speak up – thanks! If you don’t care about that, and it’s going in the trash anyway, please put it in the donation shed instead where it will at least do some good.

Although the St Pauly website uses vague terms like “distribute clothing” they are not a charity of any kind. They are a privately owned, 100% For Profit used clothing wholesaler and part of a fast-growing market that is worth 45 billion dollars a year just in the US. Anything we put in the shed is taken to their facility where is sorted for type and value and then baled up and all of it is sold for retail re-sale, much of it being shipped to Africa. You can even buy wholesale used clothing on Ebay. Bonnie is also correct that this is better than the clothing just going into the landfill.

I personally think that the donation shed is fine as long as the money is spent on properly RESTORING the Meetinghouse and protecting the historic integrity of the building and the whole seven acre site for future generations. That has always been the purpose of the Restoration Committee; it is right in the 2006 Committee Charter.

Sadly, the current committee members do not share that interest. The current selectmen have agreed to their request to not be held to the original objectives and standards of the 2006 Committee Charter. The committee has even gone to the extreme of getting official approval from the selectmen to remove the word “Restoration” from the Committee name. After 18 years of the town having a Meetinghouse Restoration Committee - we now just have a “Meetinghouse Committee” that does not believe in restoration.
I think they were hoping that we would not notice the change.

At Town Meeting this year they will offer Warrant Article #18 asking us to agree to let them take all the taxpayer money that has been set aside over the years specifically for historic “Restoration”, and instead use it to alter and modernize the building and site and “rehabilitate” it into the same thing that we already have at the Community Room at the Fire Station.

Their plan for the Meetinghouse includes putting up solar panels in the view-shed field next to the Meetinghouse, cutting down all the trees between the Meetinghouse and the Town Pound and filling the area with a septic system and a couple stink pipes. This is the area where we had planned to leave the natural topography unaltered and use is as a small performance amphitheater. All this for one toilet and a sink in a $400 per square foot addition stuck on the back.

This plan will forever ruin the historic integrity and beauty of the Meetinghouse and its pristine site.
PLEASE vote NO on Article 18 and prevent this from happening.

Thank you, George Gale

11/28/2024

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving!
I'd like to give thanks for all the initiative and hard work put in by the Highway Department - and most specifically, Doug Filiatrault - over the past year to bring the Meetinghouse grounds into the beautiful shape that they are in now.

Over the years, w**ds and suckers had grown to hide the stonewalls. In the Viewshed field, suckers had grown 25 feet out from the stonewall and over 12 feet high; completely blocking the view from the Meetinghouse.

Doug took on the challenge and the results are amazing! This historic site looks better now than it has in many decades. Let’s hope we can summon the wisdom to protect and maintain the historic integrity and unspoiled beauty of the Meetinghouse property going forward.

The first picture is the “before” picture- the rest all the great results!
George Gale

05/28/2024

Doug doing an AWESOME job at the Meetinghouse today - mowing, w**d whacking, then cleaned up with the leaf blower. It has never looked so good! Thanks Doug!

03/11/2024

If you like the Meetinghouse and want to see it 100% properly restored as the historic site that it is, while also getting grants for up to 50% of the cost, PLEASE take two minutes to read this memo from a meeting in Concord between the LCHIP directors and a New Durham selectman and the town administrator. It goes a long way towards explaining what is really going on now.

The story starts in the summer of 2022, when the Meetinghouse Committee applied for a grant from LCHIP, the state agency that will fund up to 50% of historic restoration projects. The committee asked for $120,000 to go towards repairing or replacing some damaged timbers in the roof framing. They only had ONE BID from one contractor (Arron Sturgis) with a fairly shocking price tag of $277,000. For example, it includes $55,000 to set up staging and $40,000 for shingles and roof trim.

The other (even bigger) problem was that the grant application itself was full of inaccurate and misleading claims, including the biggest lie of all; the claim that the building was in “eminent danger” and their was an “urgent” need to “save the building”. That claim is nonsense and shamefully false. The building is more stable and secure than it has been in the last 100 years.

LCHIP realized that fact, and completely rejected the grant application, giving the Meetinghouse zero dollars. As a result, the selectmen refused to re-appoint the Meetinghouse chair to the committee. A couple months later, in January of 2023, the meeting between the town and LCHIP took place.

As the memo states, LCHIP saw no urgency or eminent threat to the building, and they found the repair process proposed by Arron Sturgis to be “odd and unusual and not fully explained”. LCHIP also now requires that New Durham get a new Historic Structure Report” (structural assessment) and that it be “completed by someone other than A. Sturgis as they believe this needs to be advice from a neutral third party”.

This year the Committee ignored the advice from LCHIP and their offer to help the town, and instead applied for a completely different grant that would have developed the Meetinghouse into a modern community center and ruined the historic site forever. Not surprisingly, they ONLY want Arron Sturgis to do the timber frame repair. Apparently, that application was also just denied.

Arron Sturgis has said that he is starting a long-term project next year and is only available this year to work on the Meetinghouse. The committee’s plan now is to continue claiming that the repairs must be made urgently and have the New Durham taxpayers unnecessarily pay 100% of the cost by either selling town owned property or taking taxpayer funds from elsewhere in the General Fund.

They may put it out to bid for this year just to make it look legitimate, but since every good timber frame contractor is already booked at least a year ahead, only Strugis will actually be available and able to bid.

I was the founding chairman of the Restoration Committee in 2006 and have years of experience in structural repairs to timber frame buildings. I finally left the committee in 2019 because I felt it had become completely political and ineffective. I got the committee’s first LCHIP grant back in 2006 and I wrote the successful LCHIP grant applications that got us funding towards the foundation restoration that was done in 2018. Those grant applications were successful because they were well thought out, detailed and completely honest. LCHIP has been our best friend and ally in the restoration effort.

I oversaw and documented every single day of that foundation project and I personally leveled out the entire structure to within ¼ of an inch. Nobody in town knows that building as well as I do. I guarantee you that the Meetinghouse is stable and secure. There is no eminent threat or urgency to do the timber repairs this or next year, or the year after. The six temporary posts and the roof tarps that we installed are just a cheap insurance policy that gives us extra years to finally get our act together and get the LCHIP grants and professional guidance that we need and the building deserves.

But that is just my opinion. What do you think? Is the current committee is doing a good job and do they have a good plan, or do you think we can do just a little bit better?

George Gale Timberworks Construction

03/07/2024

According to their own words, the three Selectmen, the Town Administrator, and the entire Meetinghouse Committee “all forgot" to put a $777,000 Meetinghouse Loan Warrant Article on Ballot for Town Meeting and voter approval. They discuss their plan to not tell the grantors (Community Development Finance Authority) until they find out if they got the grant. Select Chair Swenson then claims that it is no big deal because they can hold a "Special Meeting" after the real Town Meeting by simply putting a notice in the newspaper.

The problem is, according to the NH Dept. of Revenue Administration, that plan is illegal. State law makes it extremely difficult to hold “Special Town Meetings” because otherwise, less than honest town governments might be tempted to use it all the time to sneak through unpopular or sketchy expenditures when they know that a “Special” Town Meeting could likely have a much, much smaller and politically friendly turnout. So it is intentionally made difficult.

In this case, the law requires the New Durham Selectmen to get approval from a Superior Cout judge by proving that there is an actual emergency that was unforeseeable, will cause great harm, could not have been included on the real ballot, and that there are no other alternatives. Good luck with that.

The grant they are applying for is in the form of a “forgivable loan” but ONLY if the whole $915,000 development plan is 100% completed before next August. Otherwise, it will not be forgiven and the New Durham taxpayers will have to pay the bill.

That is why, when it does appear on a valid ballot, it will have to be treated as a regular Loan Issue, meaning that passage will require a 60% vote to pass and it will have to be Article #1 on the Warrant. There is no doubt that Town Counsel would have informed the Selectmen and Town Administrator of these facts back in December when all potential warrant articles are reviewed by the town’s attorney.

All very strange.

https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/III/31/31-5.htm