Center Meeting House

Come into the Center Meeting House with me and travel down a few memories to the present.  Back in 1832, it is said, a pew was not sponsored.  A pew was Owned!  Pew owners even got a title to their pews.  Over the years, that system came under stress as the Center Meeting House was used less and less and the cost of maintaining it became more and more of a burden.  Newbury's population was in decline.  One hundred years after its construction, in 1932,  the pew owners turned their titles over to a new Board of Trustees and left the care and support of the building in the trustees' hands.

Thirty years or more prior to that, the building had a restoration that was spearheaded by John Hay and his wife, Clara.  Along with repairs, there was an 1860 steel bell that was acquired from Grantham, NH and placed in the bell tower.  This bell still hangs proudly in the bell tower of the Center Meeting House and proclaims the continued existence of the building in the center of Newbury.

About the same time that the Center Meeting House was built, a very similar building was constructed in Sunapee.  If you see a picture of it you will have a hard time telling which building is which.  Sixty years later while the Newbury structure was being renovated and improved with its new bell, the sister building in Sunapee was suffering the same deterioration and was torn down.  Newbury's building is a survivor because of its caring citizens.

Today, after 178 years, the Meeting House is undergoing a major restoration that will probably last for at least one hundred years.  The key will be maintenance and the key to maintenance will be a caring membership that sees to the routine things that have to be done to keep a building healthy, and especially DRY!

Since 2005 the Center Meeting House has had a Board of Directors who are elected by citizens who choose to become members.  The board has high hopes of finishing this restoration by late summer or early fall of 2010.  Our major fundraiser this year is dedicated to getting this phase finished.  It is the sale of Pew Sponsorships.  A sponsor's name will be inscribed on a brass plaque that will hang in the building and will also be found on a page in a museum quality book that will tell their story.  It could be about associations with the CMH or anything that suits their fancies. 

The major result of a pew sponsorship is the leaving of a legacy for the next hundred years.  The University of Houston Magazine says that "Legacy can be defined as the passing of a gift or a precious memory to future generations."  I chose this definition because it is such a heart-felt one that the dictionaries seem to miss. This is what sponsoring a pew in the CMH is all about, the passing of a precious memory down through the generations.  That's what the Meeting House itself has done for almost two centuries and will do for another century, and I hope for longer than that.  Give me a call at 603-763-3461 and let me help you choose your pew.  There are 42 pews in the building but only 17 16 are now left.  It's time to select your legacy for Newbury's future.