The
Renovation and Transformation of the St. Joseph Church building in Bartlett,
NH
Bartlett
Historical Society Mission
Bartlett is a small, rural New England town with its origins officially dating back to 1790 when it was incorporated and named in honor of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, the first President of New Hampshire. The true origin of the town dates even farther back, however. At the end of the French and Indian Wars, acreage was granted to soldiers who distinguished themselves in battle. The first land grants that eventually became a part of Bartlett were from Governor Benning Wentworth in October 1765 to Colonel Andrew McMillan, a two thousand acre plot and another three thousand acres to Captain William Stark.
Over the
years, Bartlett has been a farming town, a logging town, a railroad town,
and hospitality town. This
town’s history makes for a great story.
Our work to
preserve the history of the town is important because much can be learned
from our heritage and passed on to future generations.
St. Joseph
Church – A Brief History
St. Joseph
Church was built in 1890 under the guidance of Father J. N. Plante.
St. Joseph was the first and oldest Catholic Church in the Mount
Washington Valley. Over the
years, it served the spiritual needs of Catholics, at first from many
villages in the valley, and over time, just to the Villages of Bartlett.
In 1999, the
Diocese of Manchester consolidated several smaller churches into the parish
of Our Lady of the Mountains in North Conway, thereby closing St. Joseph
Church. In that year, the
Bartlett School District purchased the church building and turned it into a
storage facility for the school district.
In 2013, the
school district announced a plan to demolish the building.
In response, a small group of Bartlett citizens arose asking that the
building be saved.
After much
discussion, it was decided to lease the building to the Bartlett Historical
Society so they could transform it into a historical museum.
A lease between the school district and historical society was signed
in June 2016. The building will
be renovated and opened as
“The
Bartlett Historical Society Museum.”
Transformation of a Church to a Museum
The Bartlett
Historical Society plans to renovate and transform the church building into:
·
The
headquarters for the historical society;
·
A public
museum displaying the history of Bartlett;
·
A center for
presentations on historic topics;
·
A research
center for Bartlett’s past, and;
·
An archive
for our collection of Bartlett artifacts.
Today, our
historical society has no headquarters, no museum, a borrowed presentation
room, artifacts scattered across town and no facility for historic research.
This building renovation and transformation will change a church to a
museum; save an historic structure, and; allow the Bartlett Historical
Society to preserve the past for future generations.