The history is revealed

In my earlier life, I developed an interest in the history of my hometown, Wilbraham, Massachusetts. This interest carried over in later life, and has been an itch to be scratched as we traveled around the country. I find it fascinating to discover the ways that people found to make their living, and the relationships that developed in communities as a result. For example, my mom worked as a checkout clerk in a small grocery in Wilbraham, and as a result, met and knew a lot of people in the town.

We took possession of our house in Friendship on June 21, took a trip to Ipswich to visit Paul and his family, and to pick up our boat and some of our stuff in storage. We came back to Friendship and started peeling wallpaper, and unloading stuff. We realized that the house is very dirty, probably a result of the wood burning stove that supplemented the old furnace lurking in the basement, and we started cleaning. The electrician came on June 28th and started to replace the old wiring. To help control the cost, I am acting as the electricians assistant.

As we've been here for 10 days or so, we've met some of the neighbors. I've been asking questions about the history of our house, and it turns out that a new book was released on Saturday, 6/30, about the some of houses in Friendship. Nearly all the houses described in the book were written up by their residents. There is a certain pride that folks in New England, and perhaps everywhere have in property that has been in the family for a long time. Expressing the history of these old houses connects the rooted members of the community, by and large. Maine already has an open discrimination issue with people "from away", and written records of the old families and their homes tends to protect and preserve this discrimination. We are and will always be outsiders here.

But regardless of our past, our house and barn have a history of their own. The house and barn was built by Charles Morse, one of the families of prolific boatbuilding in Friendship. Charles brother, Wilbur, is the grand master of building the class of boats known as Friendship sloops, pretty and efficient single masted sailboats that found favor as work boats for the lobstermen along the Maine coast. They gained even more fame when one of them won an important sailboat race in Rockland, and hundreds were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Charles built some of these boats, in our barn.

Charles only lived in our house for 11 years, I'm told. What may be more interesting is that our barn was one of the early shops for building the Friendship sloops. There is a photo in the new history that shows a sloop laying in front of our barn, along with some of the builders including Charles himself. And, there are 2 long, round wooden poles in the barn, which I thought were flagpoles, but as the history is revealed, it's more likely that they were intended to be masts for the sloops.

Today we met someone who worked on the book, who thinks that the barn is an important historical artifact, and should be preserved. Our house inspector thought it was a lightly built structure that may give good service for maybe 10 years, and then perhaps shredded and dumped. Our neighbor across the street, a boatbuilder, says the structure will probably stand for a long time, given the way it is built. What do we do?

There is a Friendship sloop society that provides a connection for current owners of the remaining boats, and the few that have been built by folk who appreciate their lines and seaworthiness. I intend to write them to see what interest there may be in their membership in this bit of history.

Meanwhile, more electrical work and stripping of wallpaper continues tomorrow. And the next day, and the next...