Laconia environmental center, Wolfeboro Girl Scouts get preservation awards

An educational center preserves a farm that has been looking over Paugus Bay since it was just a swamp, and a girl scout troop is leading Wolfeboro with a repurposing of its municipal electric building. Those two local efforts were among six statewide that were recently honored by the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s annual awards.

The “Electric Llamas” are a Girl Scout Troop from Wolfeboro that formed to compete in the FIRST LEGO League several years ago. As part of their competition, they were asked to imagine the reuse of an underutilized building in their community. The Llamas focused on the town’s Municipal Electric Building, and designed plans to turn it into a community center.

After the competition, they decided their idea was good enough for prime time, so they brought their plan to the town’s voters, who approved of a $25,000 feasibility study at town meeting in March.

The Electric Llamas – Amelia Bickford, Adrianna Noel, Evelyn Hafner, Avalyn and Miriam Lambert, and coach Briar Rose Lambert – enlisted the support of experts in the community as part of their FIRST LEGO League entry.

“In FLL, there’s two portions to the robot game, and they’re equally important,” said Briar Rose Lambert. “The theme was City Shapers, and had to find an abandoned or underused building to find what the potential use would be. Find a space and reimagine it. They get higher points with the more people they talk to. In the process of doing their plan they’ve met with town officials who are championing them on and want them to keep going. They asked the Board of Selectmen to give them money, so they taught the girls how to get a petitioned warrant started.”

Their challenge included both technical and social aspects, as the team learned how to use computer-assisted designs and communicated with townspeople to campaign for the passage of their warrant article.

The approval of the warrant article is hardly the finish line for the team, though. In a statement they prepared as part of their acceptance of the preservation award, they stated, “We are excited for our work to continue. We look forward to setting up a committee of community members and continue working with community organizations. We hope to start our grant writing soon as well. We are eager to create this amazing center and highlight this historical building for generations to come... We hope to invite you all to our community center in the coming years.”

In the closing years of the 18th Century, Colonel Dudley Prescott was awarded 700 acres of land in honor of his military service during the Revolutionary War. The land at that time extended down to Paugus Bay, which, prior to the Lakeport Dam being built, was more wetlands than waterbody. Prescott’s descendents farmed the land for a century and a half, selling off the land closer to the water for development. A large chunk of the land remains, and on it sits the nonprofit Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center, which, in addition to serving as a gateway to the natural world for young and old, visitors and locals, preserves the history of the farm and many of its structures.

That stewardship is evidenced by a recent four-year barn preservation project, aimed at preserving the large dairy barn that was built in 1883. The restoration included attending to the original timber frame of the barn, resetting the stone foundation, and extending the main floor over open space. Now, instead of storing bales of hay, the barn has a new life as space for programming for summer camps, school field trips and other open-to-the-public events.

"It's always wonderful to be recognized for our work, particularly among the other honorees in 2020," said Phoebe VanScoy-Giessler, development and communications director at the farm. "At Prescott Farm we are lucky to have a dedicated board that prioritizes a commitment to history, preservation, and environmental education. It's also a privilege to be the custodians of such a historically and environmentally rich property. We know from firsthand experience that understanding something can lead to a powerful drive to preserve and protect it. Soon, we hope, it will be safe for people to gather in person on our property to continue these connections."