In Vermont and across the country we all see too many schoolhouses abandoned or neglected. Sometimes these buildings will have better fates: converted to residences, used as community centers, or as a museum. And some have even better fates, like the Root Schoolhouse and the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse, both of Norwich, VT. These two have recently been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. To celebrate and to raise money for the continued restoration and work on the buildings, there is a wine tasting on Wednesday July 10 in Norwich, VT. See below for details.
The Root Schoolhouse. Click for source.
Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse. Click for source.
Here’s a note from Peter Stanzel of the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse Association and Brian Cook of the Root District Game Club telling about the event:
In June 2013, two Norwich one-room schoolhouses, Beaver Meadow School (246 Chapel Hill Road) and Root School (987 Union Village Road), were added to the National Register of Historic Places. The two schoolhouses join the Norwich Village Historic District (added in 1991) and the Beaver Meadow Union Chapel (added in 1995) on the Register, the National Park Service’s official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation.
On behalf of the members of the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse Association and the Root District Game Club, the neighborhood groups that have taken care of these buildings for more than sixty years, we would like to thank the Norwich Historic Preservation Commission for initiating the nomination of the schoolhouses to the Register, with special thanks to Peter Brink, Phil Dechert, and Nancy Hoggson for their leadership. Last year, the Commission received a grant from the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service to hire a consultant to prepare the applications nominating the schoolhouses to the Register. That consultant, architectural historian Lyssa Papazian, did phenomenal work on these applications and we thank her as well.We would like to invite the community to come join us in celebrating the schoolhouses and their addition to the Register. Dan & Whit’s and Norwich Inn will host a wine-tasting fundraiser in support of the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse Association and the Root District Game Club on Wednesday, July 10, from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at the Inn. Tickets are fifteen dollars if purchased in advance at Dan & Whit’s or twenty dollars if purchased at the door, with six dollars from each ticket sold benefiting our groups. Furthermore, for each bottle of wine purchased at the event, one dollar will be donated to our groups. Many thanks to Dan Fraser for once again inviting the schoolhouses to be the beneficiaries of this fun event.Much work remains in order to preserve and restore the schoolhouses. The schoolhouses’ addition to the National Register of Historic Places is a terrific tool that we believe will help us succeed. Even more important to our success, however, is the increasing support the schoolhouses have received from the community over the past couple of years. Please join us, both on July 10 and beyond!
Preservation is about community, and most often that is why preservation works. So if you’re around, stop by. What sort of preservationist doesn’t like good conversation and wine, right?! And look for more from the Norwich Historical Society and good news about the schoolhouses.
Additional information about the schoolhouses: Root Schoolhouse and Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse videos. And Norwich Schoolhouses on Facebook.
Preservation in Pink 