Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse held a public lunch event on Saturday with Sonya Misiaszek and Jared Guilmett from Misiaszek Turpin pllc, an architectural firm based out of Laconia, who shared working drafts and potential plans for the meetinghouse restoration project and heard feedback from the community.

Greenfield’s meetinghouse was built in 1795, and according to the Friends’ website, “is celebrated as the oldest meetinghouse in New Hampshire to continually serve both church and state.” Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse Chair Sheldon Pennoyer said the board plans to apply for a grant up to $1 million at the end of April that would go toward restoration of the historic building.

Project plans include installing an elevator that will reach the basement, first and second floors and fire loft, redoing the basement to include a community space, kitchen and functional bathrooms, reconstructing staircases and removing the damaged stained-glass windows from the second floor, restoring them and reinstalling them on sliding tracks inside the building. Guilmett said this will make the space brighter and preserve the historic windows. The design also includes building a glass addition onto the back of the building, which Misiaszek explained will help protect original elements like the rose window.

The addition will look modern, but Misiaszek said it’s an attempt to “be truthful to what was here and what impacts we are making.” The clapboard side of the original meetinghouse will show through the glass, and she described the addition as “exploring and continuing the story that is this building.”

Some residents weren’t sold by the modern design and expressed concerns about less light coming through the rose window.

“It’s evolved over time,” said Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse Board Historic Liaison Lenny Cornwell, explaining that since it was built, the meetinghouse has been turned 90 degrees, a second floor has been added and the basement and bell tower have undergone changes. “Another run will look a little different. It’s never the same building.”

Most proposed changes are an effort to make all levels of the meetinghouse more accessible and usable. 

“We’re seeing this building can be used in many ways, on different levels,” said Misiaszek. 

Town Emergency Management Director Dave Martin said he hopes the basement can be used as an emergency shelter for the town. Currently, the second story of the town offices is designated as the emergency shelter, but there is no heat there. Martin asked if a shower could be installed in the basement, and said it could potentially be used as an emergency operation center, which would make the town eligible for grant money for items such as computers, radios, white boards and projection screens.

“These are the things we want to hear,” said Misiaszek. “What other uses can this building provide?”

The bell tower needs some structural work and the parking area will be reconfigured, which Misiaszek said “is always a difficult discussion to have” because people want parking spaces but don’t want them to affect the look of the town.

“It’s kind of a balancing act. We will solve this and come up with a number that is right,” she said.

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