Historic school changes hands

IN ASHLAND-After several years of negotiations, the Tri-County Community Action Program has been able to finalize the purchase of the town's historic school house.

A Community Action Program official, members of the Ashland Historical Society and representatives from two preservation organizations gathered at the front of the building off Highland Street Tuesday afternoon to make the announcement.

Larry Kelly, executive director of the Tri-Countyity Action Program, which serves Carrol, Coos and Grafton counties, said they were eager to get started on the renovation project they had hoped to start in 2001.

"This is a project we've been working on for seven years." Kelley said. "We want to preserve the structure because of its obvious value as a heritage site and it is one where we believe we can combine the past and present to make a useful element in the community."

Kelly said when the renovation is complete, the area's Head Start Program will operate from the building and other nonprofits will soon follow.

Tri-County Community Action will be using LCHlP (Land and Community Heritage Investment Program) grant money for much of the project. The Community Action Program was awarded $300,000 for the project and the Ashland Historical Society donat¬ed a little less than $29,000.

Amy Dixon, historic resource specialist with the LCHlP pro-gram, said the organization works with local organizations to "protect the state's most important historical sites."

"We are so thrilled and proud to be working with Tri-County Community Action again, they have been a good steward of his¬toric resources around the state," Dixon said.

Jennifer Goodman, president of the New Hampshire Preserva-tion Alliance, said the school building was picked as one of the three projects it will work on this year.

Goodman said the structure was chosen not only for its historical significance but because of its potential to be useful to the public.

Goodman said the Alliance works with local organizations to help save historic buildings or areas in their town, including revitalizing downtown areas,

"It is to preserve the character of the community, revitalize the local economy and help keep what is great about New Hampshire great." Goodman said.

David Ruell, president of the Ashland Historical Society and one of the school's former students, said the structure was built between 1877 and 1878 in the late Victorian-era style of many former school buildings throughout the state. Others have been converted for use as courthouses, law offices and apartments.

In Ashland, Ruell said school district voters at the 1877 meeting voted to build a new school and to spend up to $10,000 on the project. The final cost was a little more, at $10,978.

Ruell said according to an ac-count in a Plymouth newspaper, no less than 200,000 bricks were used in the structure.

The school opened in April 1878 and served the town as a school. teaching at first all grades then later only elementary and junior high students, until it was closed in 1990,

"So thousands of Ashland residents had part or all of their education in that building," Ruell said about the school's 112-year run.

Ruell said among the school's notable alumni was Dr. George Hoyt-vVhipple, who won a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1934.

Ruell said that throughout the 1990s, the Ashland Historical So¬ciety advocated the building's preservation, though the school district talked about selling the land and having the building de-molished.

In fact. it was a petition started bv the Historical Society. Ruell said, that precipitated the 2001 and 2002 votes to sell the building to the Tri-County Community Action Program.

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