OTISFIELD – The former Otisfield Town House, situated at the bottom of Bell Hill Road, may soon join some buildings nearby that are on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Town House already has been approved for the national registry by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and a state review board, said Christi Mitchell, an architectural historian with the commission.

The last step, Mitchell said Wednesday, was to send an application to the keeper of the national registry in Washington, D.C., and it was ready to send.

If accepted, the Town House will join a list of 78,000 parks, historic landmarks and properties that the federal government deems worthy of preservation. Being listed, Mitchell said, is an honor.

It also provides some resources for protecting the building. Once listed, applications for federal licenses, permits, or funding for projects that would alter the building cause notifications to be sent to the state preservation commission, she said. “Then our office has a chance to review and comment on whether the activity would have a negative effect.”

While the commission doesn’t have the power to stop a highway from being built, often it is able to reduce, mitigate or prevent damage to a property.

Almost 100 years old

Mitchell said the Otisfield Town House was built in 1905, and is a good representation of an early government building and public hall. It was the third meetinghouse constructed in the Bell Hill area, she said. The state believes it is eligible for the registry because it meets preservation-commission standards for integrity and historical significance. Everything from the architectural style and layout of the building to alterations and its historical use were considered in the determination.

Jean Hankins of the Otisfield Historical Society and the Bell Hill Meeting House Association said Mitchell herself inspected the Town House. She also had inspected the Bell Hill Meetinghouse and the Bell Hill School, which are now both on the national registry.

It was a cold March day when Mitchell inspected the meetinghouse, Hankins said, but she “looked at every board and every pew.” She also took time to inspect the building’s dome.

Listing buildings on the national register is more than an honor to Hankins.

Raising money

“We’re now in the middle of a campaign to repair the belfry on the meetinghouse,” she said. Having the building listed on the national registry won’t directly result in dollars, she said, but it lends prestige and credibility to the campaign.

Hankins said the Otisfield Board of Selectmen asked the Historical Society to submit an application to include the Town House on the national registry. She and her husband, David, have worked on the project together.

Historical Society member Ethel Turner called the Hankinses “instrumental” in the efforts to preserve Otisfield’s historic landmarks.

The Town House, she noted, has only been out of use for a few years.

“That’s where we voted until very recently,” she said.