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Log inLANDMARK RESTORED
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LANDMARK RESTORED
by Outspoken on Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:13 am
LANDMARK RESTORED
BY MECHELE COOPER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal
WINDSOR -- When Polly Shaw and her husband moved to town, they found themselves much involved with the Order of Eastern Star and the Masons.
Shaw, 88, played the piano and became in great demand with the local lodges in the area.
After the death of her husband, and as the years went by, it became difficult to climb the stairs.
Many of the lodge halls installed a chair lift or physically assisted when necessary, so that she could get to the piano, which was always on the second floor.
One day while selling raffle tickets to raise money for a new lift in the Windsor Town Hall, Mary Ellen Peaslee, a member of the Windsor Town Hall Renovation Committee, met Shaw for the first time.
The committee has worked for the past three years to renovate the upstairs of the Town Hall on Route 32. The group has provided $90,000 worth of labor and materials to give the town the additional space.
Projects include the repair of walls, painting, floor stripping and sanding and the preservation of the hall's antique advertising curtain, along with a kitchenette, rest room, 75 new chairs and a fire escape.
The last project is the lift.
NETCo Inc. and Two Loons Trading Co. are assisting with a matching grant of $11,000. The lift costs $22,000 and the committee has already raised $3,000 for the match.
"I was soliciting funds and this lady drove up, watched for a while, went away and soon came back," Peaslee said. "She said 'I don't want a raffle ticket, but I do want to give you this.' She presented five one-hundred-dollar bills. My question was 'are you sure you want to do this? It's a lot of money.' And this is how she answered: 'I've saved this for a long time and now I know what I want to do with it. I want to give back to others because people have been so good to me over the years. This lift is needed.'"
The second floor of the Town Hall -- built in 1922 -- with its oak flooring, wainscot wall paneling and original tin ceiling, is where many graduations and weddings were held, along with political and social gatherings.
Grange 284, which has since disbanded, used to meet in this space, Peaslee said. She found old ribbons that the Grange won at the Windsor Fair dating back to the 1930s and framed and hung them on the wall.
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5307738.html
Staff Photo by Andy Molloy[b]
BY MECHELE COOPER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal
WINDSOR -- When Polly Shaw and her husband moved to town, they found themselves much involved with the Order of Eastern Star and the Masons.
Shaw, 88, played the piano and became in great demand with the local lodges in the area.
After the death of her husband, and as the years went by, it became difficult to climb the stairs.
Many of the lodge halls installed a chair lift or physically assisted when necessary, so that she could get to the piano, which was always on the second floor.
One day while selling raffle tickets to raise money for a new lift in the Windsor Town Hall, Mary Ellen Peaslee, a member of the Windsor Town Hall Renovation Committee, met Shaw for the first time.
The committee has worked for the past three years to renovate the upstairs of the Town Hall on Route 32. The group has provided $90,000 worth of labor and materials to give the town the additional space.
Projects include the repair of walls, painting, floor stripping and sanding and the preservation of the hall's antique advertising curtain, along with a kitchenette, rest room, 75 new chairs and a fire escape.
The last project is the lift.
NETCo Inc. and Two Loons Trading Co. are assisting with a matching grant of $11,000. The lift costs $22,000 and the committee has already raised $3,000 for the match.
"I was soliciting funds and this lady drove up, watched for a while, went away and soon came back," Peaslee said. "She said 'I don't want a raffle ticket, but I do want to give you this.' She presented five one-hundred-dollar bills. My question was 'are you sure you want to do this? It's a lot of money.' And this is how she answered: 'I've saved this for a long time and now I know what I want to do with it. I want to give back to others because people have been so good to me over the years. This lift is needed.'"
The second floor of the Town Hall -- built in 1922 -- with its oak flooring, wainscot wall paneling and original tin ceiling, is where many graduations and weddings were held, along with political and social gatherings.
Grange 284, which has since disbanded, used to meet in this space, Peaslee said. She found old ribbons that the Grange won at the Windsor Fair dating back to the 1930s and framed and hung them on the wall.
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5307738.html
Staff Photo by Andy Molloy[b]
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
