What if the Enfield Historical Society Disappeared?

As President of the Historical Society, I’ve given this possibility some real thought since the Town Council decided to reduce our annual grant from $26,000 to $6,000.

In all honesty, we were caught off guard by the Town Council’s action.

We believed that our efforts, particularly those undertaken over the past three years, had benefited the Town, the schoolchildren, and residents by preserving and making history more accessible and enjoyable.

We believed our good works would have been enough to continue to be funded at the customary level set in previous years, regardless of the Town Council's composition.

We were wrong.

We operate The Old Town Hall Museum, open on Sundays from mid-May through late October from 1 – 5 PM, the Wallop one-room schoolhouse on four Sundays over the summer from 2 – 4 PM, and the Martha Parsons House Museum by appointment until further notice. We are an “all-volunteer” staff, contributing our time to preserving history because of an affinity for the stories and events that helped shape the town in which we live.

We host presentations from Fall through Spring at the Enfield Main Public Library, drawing residents from our town, neighboring towns, and nearby states, that cover a wide range of topics – from the macabre to the fanciful to the unbelievable.

Our primary museum at 1294 Enfield Street consists of three floors overflowing with Enfield artifacts, photos, documents, and stories, encompassing Powder Hollow, carpet manufacturing, outdoor boxing, fireworks manufacturing, chicken hatcheries, Shaker communities, sanitariums, ghosts, UFOs, and a Freshwater swimming hole shark attack.

It’s impossible to take it all in during one afternoon.

There are stories to inspire, like Enfield residents Thomas Ashe, who was the first pilot to attempt to cross the Pacific on a solo flight, John Ashton, who found success in Hollywood as an actor, Billy Spanswick, who rose to the major leagues as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, and Albert Vesce who fought for the heart and soul of Thompsonville against the failed Urban Renewal initiative which eventually destroyed the village.

Who would continue to acquire, catalog, house, and protect the history of the Town? Certainly not the Town Council, who, until recently, considered moving the monument of Captain Thomas Abbey from its historical position on Enfield Street, near where he alerted town residents to the forthcoming War of the Revolution, to the green in front of the current Town Hall, against the wishes of the original donors of the memorial.

There would be no one to greet and take you, our schoolchildren, or visitors from other towns, states, or countries, on a personal tour of any of our museums – for free. No one to share the stories of our past – and those stories might die.

What would become of our collection that currently resides in the Old Town Hall - a building where we are categorized as squatters, as we no longer have a lease from the Town to remain in the space? Our collection might have to be sold to the highest bidder on eBay, as we are without a legal right to stay in our space.

With no Historical Society, who among us would trust the Town Council to pick up the mantle as stewards of history based on their past performance? Should I list the historic places we have lost over the years to a bulldozer?

Sometimes you don’t understand what you lose until you lose it.

Families understand that, especially after a fire that guts a house, destroying photos, documents, and family memories that can’t be recovered.

History can vanish just like that.

Peter Sorenson is President of the Enfield Historical Society and Historian for the Enfield Society for the Detection of Thieves and Robbers. He has written two history books about Enfield and is currently working on his next book, the History of Thompsonville.