Jaffrey History Center Grand Opening on November 7

By Peter Lambert

After more than a year of hard work, the Jaffrey History Center – the new home of the Jaffrey Historical Society – will open it’s doors on November 7, 2026! This summer the new building was a beehive of activity. The inside was repainted by Dennis Wright in early July, who very generously donated all of the paint. The very next week, workers installed new carpeting and baseboard throughout the first floor. Linoleum was also installed in our new kitchen.

The benches we acquired from the Masonic Lodge, formerly used by the Jaffrey Baptist Church, were repaired by Andy Webber of Jaffrey, and he also reworked the former town office conference table to a more manageable size.

Brave volunteers cleaning the historic benches in our Meeting Room Joel Proulx took parts of that table, and parts of the former tax collector/ town clerk’s counter, and built a new work table for the Archives. Charlie Turcotte built custom shelves for our archival boxes and supervised the plumbing and electrical work. Our “style committee” of Vicki Arceci, Lyn Lambert, and Cathy Proulx, having picked out paint and carpeting, chose new kitchen cabinetry, curtains, valances – everything including the kitchen sink!

While this work was happening our Archives crew, led by Bruce Hill, took the lead in packing up our collection at the Civic Center. Thanks to Randy Cournoyer, Marilyn The gondola shelving from the old Archives is reassembled in the new Archives. The operation was well supervised! Simons, Marty Harris, Weltha Barker, Charlie Turcotte, Diane Given, and Meg Gourley for pitching in on this enormous task. Professional movers moved all the heavy objects and furniture in September.

Fundraising efforts brought in over $34,000 by mid- September, allowing us to purchase four new display cases for the Warfield Collection. We also purchased a new projector, screen, LaserJet printer, and looked into a new desktop computer. We also ordered two new signs. The first, to be located near the building, will have an enclosed bulletin board for Society announcements. The second, handmade by Walt Hautanen, will hang along Goodnow Street.

Finally, “Big Move Day” – the day all of our holdings will be moved to our new facility – will be September 26. If you get this newsletter in time, we’re looking for helpers!

To celebrate this momentous occasion for our Society, our Grand Opening Ceremony and Celebration will occur on Saturday, November 7. Please come and celebrate with us as we cut the ribbon and unveil all our hard work to the public. More details will be sent out later. And please invite your friends and fellow townspeople – we want to share our facility with everyone!