Canaan
More recently, she has been watching older and ailing friends, neighbors and strangers teeter on the verge of falling onto or down the great stone steps leading up to the front and south entrances of the structure, built in 1793.
“I got sick of seeing people staggering in there, gripping onto a wall or a door because there were no proper handrails,” Brown, now 77 and battling arthritis herself, recalled on Thursday. “There was one lady coming in for one of the meeting house author readings this summer … Honest to God, I thought she was going to go.”
Brown spearheaded an effort to put in handrails that meet federal standards for historic places, and work was completed this summer. So far, however, she has been able to pay Canaan metalsmith Dimitri Gerakaris only half of the $16,500 pricetag for designing, forging and installing the deceptively simple aids to pedestrian stability.
The town of Canaan’s Meeting House Dedication Account is down to $3,500 after a flurry of recent renovation and repair projects. A pair of fundraisers that Brown had planned over Labor Day weekend were cancelled by wind damage at Cardigan Mountain School caused by the fringes of Tropical Storm Hermine. So while the cupboard isn’t bare, it isn’t full enough.
To help make up the difference, Brown, a former New Hampshire legislator and former chairwoman of the Mascoma Valley Regional School District board who lives nearby on Canaan Street, is selling raffle tickets for a barbecue grill, Adirondack chairs and other items from a hardware store in town, as well as selling T-shirts proclaiming “Preserve Our Heritage.” She and other supporters of the meeting house will be selling those at the meeting house lawn next Saturday, during Canaan’s annual townwide yard sale.
“If all of that doesn’t do it,” Brown said. “I’m going to start rapping on doors here on Canaan Street.”
In addition to proceeds from those fundraisers, Canaan Town Administrator Mike Samson said on Thursday, the town will welcome checks sent directly to the meeting house dedication account. The trust account was established in the mid-1970s to keep up with the steady parade of improvements. Over the last decade, that work has included a new septic system, restoration of the building’s tower and cupola, replacement of lighting and windows and painting and installation of a wheelchair-access ramp out back.
“When we did the tower,” Samson said, “we had to assure that everything was done the same way as when it was built, to the extent possible. We did get exemptions here and there, but with most of it, it’s important to have things done that are historically accurate.”
Gerakaris, a 1969 graduate of Dartmouth College who took up blacksmithing and metal work in the early 1970s, is familiar with those strictures. He designed, forged and installed handrails for the Old North Church in the Canaan Historic District.
“You cannot add a nail without it being approved, as it should be,” Gerakaris said on Thursday, calling the meeting house, “a real gem.”
For the meeting house work to pass muster with the National Register of Historic Places, Gerakaris said, he had to demonstrate that he would not do the welding with electric or gas material. To that end, Gerakaris conducted months of research, consulted with experts, and bought special coal from southeastern Massachusetts to build the fire with which he forged the railings.
“There’s huge overhead involved,” Gerakaris said, adding that he also had to plan the forging just so, to account for the exact angle at which the metalwork would be anchored in the stone steps. The design includes devices at the bottom of the railings allowing people to scrape mud, snow and other debris from their shoes and boots.
“There are so many things you need to get right the first time,” Gerakaris said. “It’s very labor-intensive.”
Brown said that Canaan residents who raise their eyebrows at the price tag for four railings need to appreciate what went into their planning and creation. “You get what you pay for,” Brown said. “Plus he’s local. He’s our person. We’ve got something in Canaan that’s special.”
Gerakaris and Samson said that Canaan’s assets include volunteers like Brown. “She has been the guiding force for raising the money,” Samson said. “It was important to her. It was important to a lot of people her age.”
Added Gerakaris: “She’s so committed to the community. We’re blessed with people like this in the Upper Valley. She willed this to happen.”
The Canaan Meeting House is among the locations for the townwide yard sale scheduled to start at 9 a.m. next Saturday; proceeds from sale of items, raffle tickets and T-shirts, at the meeting house will go toward upkeep of the building. Checks for the railing project are payable to “Town of Canaan” with the word “Railings” in the memo line, and mailed to PO Box 38, Canaan, N.H. 03741.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.