Every other week on NHPR, we like to highlight a New Hampshire nonprofit that’s providing a great service, right here in the Granite State. On this week’s Give Back New Hampshire, we’ll be hearing from the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance. Founded in 1985, the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance strengthens communities and local economies by supporting and encouraging the revitalization and protection of historic buildings and places.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jennifer Goodman: My name is Jennifer Goodman. I'm the executive director of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.
Beverly Thomas: And my name is Beverly Thomas. I'm the deputy director of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.
Jennifer Goodman: New Hampshire Preservation Alliance helps with all kinds of projects all over the state, from really light touch assistance, like somebody who's looking for help on a roof treatment or a moisture issue in their old house, to a very, very complicated save of an old mill building, old school, old industrial project of some sort.
Beverly Thomas: We have a very active barn program here in New Hampshire. We love our barns in New Hampshire. Want to see them stay, love to see them reused and restored. So we have a great, very active program with educational resources on our website. We do barn tours to help promote barn preservation.
Jennifer Goodman: I think we're really fortunate in New Hampshire to have really special places and people who are energized and willing to help steward and save and reuse them. Barns are one example of what we would even call an endangered species that are very vulnerable to loss across the state, and once they're gone, they're gone. So our work is all about trying to help them survive and thrive.
Paula Gilman: My name is Paula Gilman and I'm from Gilmanton, actually, Lower Gilmanton and my friend Sue Kelley Leclerc and I first went to the Preservation Alliance way back in 2016 because we wanted to revitalize and restore the Kelley Corner Schoolhouse, and it's the only one room schoolhouse that still exists in Gilmanton that's owned by the school district, where there were at one time as many as 18.
They also helped us with the First Baptist Church in Lower Gilmanton. In order to get a grant, number one, you have to be on the state register or the Federal Register, but then you have to have a building assessment. And we were shocked when we found out the cost of a building assessment. Then we were happy to learn that the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance will help with a grant from them towards that building assessment.
Jennifer Goodman: We're so fortunate to have leaders like Paula and Sue to help move these projects along. So it's a great, great synergy.
Jennifer Goodman: Preservation Alliance works statewide in every town and city across the state. It's fun talking to you here in Concord, where there's great preservation activity going on, people taking care of their old houses [or a] Main Street that's really historic and vibrant, great reuses like churches for housing, and where even our office is in the old stable building for the Eagle Hotel.
There's also preservation challenges here in Concord, like there are throughout the rest of the state. Farms that are vulnerable on the edges, there's commercial buildings that need additional investment, and we've been working really hard on the historic Gasholder building. It's the last of its kind in the country, and we've stabilized it in conjunction with its owner, Liberty Utilities. But it still needs a new life, it needs a next chapter, and we're working really hard on that.
Paula Gilman: The Kelley Corner Schoolhouse or the First Baptist Church could not have been done without New Hampshire Preservation Alliance backing us. So that's that's a huge, huge thank you, a huge shout out to New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.
