Open House at Gilford's 1834 Meetinghouse Sept. 10

GILFORD — The Gilford Historical Society will present its third open house in its series of Muffins & Museums on Saturday, Sept. 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the 1834 Union Meetinghouse. 

While adults are enjoying their coffee, children may enjoy sitting at a desk that was in the Gilford Elementary School when it opened in 1940 and learning about GES. At that time it had four classrooms containing grades one through eight and provided hot lunches and toilets (no more bag lunches from home or outhouses) and they may color a picture of it. If they (and/or any adult) are interested in learning about Gilford's one-room schools there is also a page that shows a corner of the Under the Mountain School No. 9 taken from a photo in 1931 that may be colored.

The two coloring pages are taken from the Gilford Historical Society's recently published book-Color Your Way Through Gilford's History and the author, Kathy Lacroix, will be there to sign the book. She taught at the Gilford Elementary School for 34 years and is a firm believer that in order to appreciate our life today it is important to understand what life was like for our ancestors.

Children and adults may also be interested in knowing how our ancestors communicated before cell phone, via the party line, and may ring the old-fashioned wall-hung phone. Among many items of interest, there is also the town's official ballot box that was used when votes were counted by hand.

The open house is open to all who are interested in learning about a bygone era. Although the items inside the 1834 Meetinghouse pertain to Gilford, they could be found in any town in its earlier days. If you have a story to tell about Gilford, come and share it with the group.

The 1834 Union Meetinghouse is located at 24 Belknap Mountain Road in Gilford Village across from the entrance to the village field where there is free parking.