Last week, George Rainier, a member of our Select Board and longtime volunteer caretaker of the Meetinghouse clock, invited me to tour the newly improved Greenfield Meetinghouse. Members of the Friends of the Meetinghouse took an official tour last month, but I was unable to attend, so I was thrilled to get a tour from Mr. Rainier, who probably knows more about the Meetinghouse than just about anyone in town.
Over the past month, the excavators and plastic fences outside the building disappeared, revealing a beautiful, new entryway. Sheldon Pennoyer, chair of Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse, donated his services to design the new entryway after the Select Board decided they didn’t like the initial plan created by the architects.
The new entryway has a wide, flat terrace, which was specifically designed to accommodate Music on the Common or other events. The front of the building now has multiple, upgraded electrical outlets. Previously, bands and performers would have to cram into the narrow space at the top of the front steps, partly blocking the accessible entrance and creating a logistical nightmare, with extension cords all over the place.
The new wheelchair ramp extends all the way to the accessible parking spots on the west side of the building. Contemporary railings make a beautiful contrast with the 230-year-old structure.
Walking into the Meetinghouse, the first thing I noticed was the new elevator. Words can’t express how exciting this is for our Meetinghouse and our town. The stairs to the second floor twist around the corner and are a little tricky even for an able-bodied person. A vintage-era stair-lift seat still functioned (members of the FGCM may have taken a few rides), but the second floor was mostly inaccessible. The elevator, which has doors on both the east and west sides, provides access to three levels of the building.
The most notable change in the main Meeting Room level is the refinished hardwood floors.
“Years ago, we were told these floors couldn’t be refinished, because they were already too thin,” George told me. “But it turns out they could be refinished, and here they are.”
The built-in benches along the walls — favorite haunt of people who arrive late at Town Meeting or weary buffet volunteers — were temporarily removed during construction, and heat was installed under the seats. There are now heating vents in the windowsills behind the benches, which will make them popular seats in the cold months.
George pointed out that many of the most important upgrades in the Meetinghouse are “the things you don’t see.”
“There’s a brand new fire alarm system, and all new electricity in the lower level and first floor — there’s a lot more than what meets the eye; some of the biggest improvements are the ones you can’t see,” he said.
Anyone who ever helped with an event at the Meetinghouse involving food knew the “two crockpot rule”: if more than two crockpots were plugged in at the same time, the building would blow a fuse. As a result, Meetinghouse volunteers spent a lot of time assembling chafing dishes and re-lighting Sterno canisters to keep food hot. Just think of a whole wall of crockpots all safely plugged in at once. We may have to bring back the Chili Cook Off!
The main floor is slightly reconfigured due to the elevator. The bad news is, the elevator had to take over the space formerly occupied by the tiny upstairs “coffee kitchen.” This kitchen, which was used heavily after the community kitchen in the basement was flooded, was inadequate and completely out of code, with the accessible restroom right smack between the access to the sink and the stove. No one will ever forget the Oktoberfest where the basement restrooms failed and the line for the only functioning restroom ran right through the upstairs kitchen, where the entire FGCM crew was trying prepare food and wash dishes (somehow, we survived).
Along with the new ramp and the elevator, the accessible upgrades to the Meetinghouse include two “places of refuge,” small, closet-like spaces where people who are unable to walk can shelter in case of a fire. Each “place of refuge” has an intercom with a direct link to the Greenfield Fire Station and the Greenfield Police Station. If neither of these answers, it goes to the dispatch center in Milford.
The most dazzling change in the Meetinghouse is the basement Community Room, which had suffered severe water damage and had not been used for years, except to access the restrooms. The Community Room has been completely redone, from the new sewer pipes under the floor that now connect the building to town sewer (via pipes under Francestown Road) to the new ceilings, which no longer feature exposed ductwork.
“Tom (Bascom, our very tall Select Board chair) always had to duck under the ductwork, so he likes this new ceiling,” George said.
The kitchen has also been completely renovated, and lacks only major appliances, such as a refrigerator and stove. These items will probably be on the agenda for the next FGCM fundraising drive.
I asked George, “What happened to all the stuff?”
As most town volunteers know, the cabinets in the basement were full of an interesting assortment of vintage dishes, utensils, coffee-making equipment dating back to the Eisenhower administration, a random accumulation of pots and pans, and potentially scary things lurking in the dark corners of the cabinets.
George said the DPW staff carefully boxed everything up and put it into storage in the DPW barn (thank you, Jim Morris and crew), and at some point, someone will go through it and figure out what to keep.
George said one of the hardest parts of the basement renovation was removing the original linoleum from the floors.
“They had to chisel the old tiles out of the floor with crowbars. It was quite a job,” he said.
Older residents in town still remember when the basement was dug out by hand in the 1940s. The fill from the basement was dumped where the Rymes pumps used to be, next to Harvester Market.
The utility room in the basement is now state-of-the-art, with electrical panels three times the size of the old ones and a new air recirculation system. The basement will have actual air conditioning. There are also now two water fountains, one accessible and one with a bottle filler.
We then rode the new elevator all the way to the second floor.
Seeing the elevator doors open up onto a second-floor stained glass window was a thrill that only serious Meetinghouse geeks like myself (and George) can appreciate. The Sanctuary level now has a new restroom where the old Sunday school room, later the FGCM office, used to be, in the southwest corner. People no longer have to walk down a flight of stairs (or two) to access the restroom.
“The Sanctuary looks the same, but you would never notice the new air vents,” George said, pointing out the ventilation system in the Victorian-era pressed-tin ceiling.
Looking around the Sanctuary, George also pointed out the buckling stained glass windows.
“The windows are huge. They came on a train from Boston, and we don’t really know how they got them in here,” George said. “I always wonder about that, and how the heck they got the clock parts up into the bell tower — not to mention the bell, which weighs 900 lbs.”
George and I agreed that if the original builders of the Meetinghouse — including Greggs, Whittemores, and Fletchers, whose descendants still live in town or nearby — could see the recent renovations, they would be truly amazed.
For more information about the Meetinghouse project, visit Greenfieldmeetinghouse.org.
Best of all, from the outside, our beautiful Meetinghouse looks exactly the same.
