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 Stone School Museum. Granite St . Newmarket, NH 03857 Open Thursdays 2-4pm in Season 603-659-7420. 
For the last 30 years I
intended to visit , but never quite
got there. The New Market Historical Society is open to the public just two slim hours a week -- and my hours in the riverside town never quite coincided. But it was worth the wait.
L.
Forbes Getchell himself gave the tour. A former Newmarket dentist,
now in his 80s, Getchell was among the society founders in 1966, and
also created the 1st
Newmarket Colonial Milita that meets here still. Back then
the old stone church and schoolhouse at the top of the
steep.t hill in the center of town were for sale. The Stone Church
became a restaurant and bar, and for a dollar, the 2-sotry
1843 stone school became home to the historic society and
museum.
Like most, the Newmarket
museum is a "gramma's attic" of artifacts, documents, funriture,
tools, whatnots and curios. The center of the room is filled with
chairs ringed with glass cases. A printing press hunkers by the
door. We poked through old Edison audio cylinders, postcards, maps
and portraits. Getchell produced an ancient light bulb and we found
a perfectly new "old" child's shoe. You name it, the museum has it
-- somewhere. Remnants of the old factory town fill every shelf and
drawer.Upstairs what used to tbe the school bathroom is now brimful
of ancient clothes. Next door is the large classroom named in honor
of Getchell, whose wife is curator and author of the Newmarket
town history. The second floor is crammed with tools, wagons, old
household appliances, an early boat, drums, signs -- even a fearsome
hair curling machine from the dawn of electricity. The ceilings are
tin, with a leak here and there, and the old blackboards are still
on the wall. In one corner, a mannequin teacher presents an endless
lesson to two doll children. You could wander through the museum for
days, and not see everything. That, in time, is exactly what we
hope to do. -- JDR
Disposable images and text by J. Dennis
Robinson |
PO Box 7158
Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03802
URL: http://www.SeacoastNH.com
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