By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CANTERBURY – Current and past leaders of the NH Land and Community Heritage Program marked its 25th Anniversary Wednesday evening at Canterbury Shaker Village with a special event recognizing a quarter-century of partnership, preservation, and community investment across New Hampshire.
LCHIP Board Chair Ben Wilcox said in an interview prior to the celebration that when he travels around the country he hears from many who consider this to be a very innovative way to preserve special land and buildings.
“New Hampshire would not be the special place it is today without this program,” he said.
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH and Former U.S. Senator Judd Gregg were in attendance at the event and were instrumental in its inception.
To date the matching grant program now paid for by a $25 LCHIP surcharge fee when a deed, mortgage, mortgage discharge or subdivision plans are filed has helped 210 NH communities preserve over 250,000 acres and 207 historic structures.
Paula Bellemore, executive director of LCHIP, said the projects have been as big as the $2 million used to create a conservation easement on the 146,400 acre Connecticut Lakes Headwaters tract at the northern tip of the state, to the small grants which preserve viewsheds.
“LCHIP works for everyone,” she said, “And it is so bipartisan.”
She said nationally known properties have been preserved including the ongoing efforts to rehabilitate poet Robert Frost’s home in Franconia and Canterbury Shaker Village, where the celebration was held.
Bellemore said other projects of note are the Webster Farm in Franklin and Harrisville’s Cheshire Mill Complex.
She said the program’s lasting impact can be seen not only in the places it has helped preserve, but in the economic, cultural, environmental, and community benefits those projects continue to provide for generations of Granite Staters.
Robert Frost’s historic farmhouse in the White Mountains of New Hampshire is receiving a new foundation, an essential preservation project that will help protect the landmark home for generations to come.
Frost’s former home has been temporarily lifted high into the air, allowing crews to remove the existing cellar and construct a new, watertight foundation. The dramatic sight offers a rare glimpse at the engineering and preservation work required to maintain the 170-year old historic property.
The Frost Place house and grounds are temporarily closed to visitors to accommodate construction crews and ensure the safety of visitors, staff, and contractors. Updates about reopening will be shared as the project progresses.
Robert Frost and his family lived in the Franconia farmhouse from 1915 to 1920, a significant period in the poet’s life and career. During these years, Frost wrote and published some of his most enduring works, including “The Road Not Taken.” The landscape surrounding the farmhouse became deeply connected to his writing and to the poems that established his place as one of America’s most celebrated poets.
Since 1977, the farmhouse has served as a museum and center for poetry and the arts, welcoming visitors, poets, and students to explore Frost’s life and work and to experience the place that inspired him.
“Preserving this house means preserving an important part of Robert Frost’s story,” said Stacy Holmes, Executive Director of The Frost Place. “This new foundation is an investment in the future of the farmhouse and in our ability to continue sharing this remarkable place with generations of visitors, poets, and readers.”
The foundation project is part of the ongoing stewardship required to preserve the historic property, which is made possible by a matching grant from LCHIP, NH’s Land Community Heritage Investment Program, and generous donations from a community of supporters. Constructing a new foundation will provide critical protection from water intrusion while helping ensure that the farmhouse remains a safe and stable home for the museum and its programs.
The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program is an independent state authority providing matching grants to New Hampshire’s municipalities and non-profits, helping to preserve the state’s most important natural, cultural, and historic resources.
For more information visit https://lchip.org/index.php
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