WOODSTOCK — A group of residents interested in preserving the 1892 Franklin Grange Hall on Route 26 is applying to have it listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We’re really nobody, just a group of interested citizens trying to keep the place alive,” Walt Staples said.

“Just trying to save another old building,” Deb Hays added.

Staples, Hays and Lynne Michaud of the Woodstock Grange Study Committee met Feb. 27 to talk about the fate of the 2½-story building that was once the center of the town’s social and business life.

The group met their first challenge when they received word Jan. 8 that the Maine Historic Preservation Commission had deemed the hall eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

The second step is to apply for the federal designation.

Michael Goebel-Bain, representing the state, said over the next year or more he could help with the application process. Or the town may hire a historic architect to more quickly reach its next goal.

“If that (designation) comes through, it opens up all kinds of possibilities for grants and other help to try to renovate the place and bring it up to code,” Staples said. The designation offers protection from demolition and gives the building historical value, too.

First steps

Staples said with the sale of the Grange Hall to the town four or five years ago, all the former grandfathered code requirements needed to be updated before the building could be used again.

It was around that time when the study group, which includes Bob McQueeney, Marcel Polak and Larry Bonney, began its mission to research what the next step for the grange should be.

Staples said there are three possible scenarios: raze the building, sell it, or bring it up to code for public use.

At the 2023 annual town meeting, townspeople voted not to raze the building and gave the committee more time to do research.

Work needed

Meeting fire codes is the first hurdle.

Other work includes reconfiguring doors, rebuilding the back stairway, painting, writing grants and possibly applying for nonprofit status.

“If the town is going to use it, there are a minimal number of changes that have to be done,” Staples said. “Building the back stairs is the most expensive thing.”

The group plans to speak at the annual town meeting March 25. A letter in the Annual Report asks for help from anyone who has experience in construction, writing grants, planning meetings and entertainment, “or just an interest in sharing your opinions the committee would welcome your participation.”

One specific need is for volunteer contractors and tradesmen who can help the committee develop cost estimates for updating electric, plumbing, carpentry and paint.

“If the town tears it down, we are all going to pay,” Michaud said.

Staples said tearing it down would cost $150,000 to $200,000.

“Getting the word out is the most important thing,” Hays said.

History 

According to the application for historical designation, “The Grange building in Woodstock is the simplest and most ordinary of buildings by design. It is consistent with the Grange emphasis on public service and accessibility.

“While the building is not unique, it is of value for what it has offered the community over the past 125 years. No other building or location has served such a central purpose in the community as the Woodstock Grange building.

“Adjacent to the Woodstock Grange building is the Whitman Memorial Library, which was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on January 12, 1995. As people become more and more mobile and small towns lose much of their identity with the loss of local industry, it is important to preserve those resources that could continue to serve the public need like the Grange Hall has done.”

Staples said besides their official ceremonies the Grange rented the hall for wedding receptions, “Hee-Haw” shows, contra and square dances.

“It’s famous, it is in a lot of publications,” Hays said of the two-story attached outhouse. The structure is upstaged by the three-story outhouse in the Masonic Lodge next door.

“I’m guessing the same guys built that building back in the 1800s,” Hays said.

The Grange “was the center of this town since the 1800s when it was built,” Staples said. “The Grange is interesting. They were very pro-women’s lib. They were some of the leaders in trying to get more power for the women. The women were involved just as much as the men were, it wasn’t segregated out. They were giving votes to women in the Grange before they were allowed to vote anywhere else.”

Of the town in general, Michaud said, “It was prettier when we came 30 years ago. Now there’s junk everywhere. Everybody has 35 cars, it’s awful now. I would rather go back to Massachusetts. I was so glad to leave there where everybody had to have a golf club lawn … ”

Hays said she remembered when Woodstock was lined with elm trees.

“It was the most beautiful town,” she said.

The three talked about the many former businesses: restaurants, mills, a hotel and a variety of stores that filled the village at one time.

They talked about the music scene that was part of the fabric of the town, too.

” … I’d like to hold onto one little thing and that’s that Grange building and see if we can bring back some of the good, old times,” Staples said.

The Grange Hall Study Committee meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. at the Whitman Library.

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