On a frosty February evening in 1972, a dozen or so low- and moderate-income parents met at the Family Center on West Street, in the heart of what was then known as the “low rent” section of Lebanon, across from the E. Cummings Leather Tannery on High Street. That meeting was the beginning of what would become Listen.
It was an era when social change, including rights for minorities, the underprivileged and the oppressed, were coming to the forefront, across the country and here in the Upper Valley. New federal War on Poverty programs, supporting paths from poverty to stability, included early childhood education, job training, food security and affordable housing.
Across New Hampshire, this brought together the working class, welfare recipients, Headstart parents and others who believed in the effort. In Nashua, a group taking on housing issues adopted the name VOICE, Volunteers Organized in Community Education. VOICE, like many other groups formed at the time, is now listed officially as “dissolved.” One group that has not dissolved, but in fact grown exponentially, is Listen. This is the story of the group’s early beginnings.
That meeting in February 1972 was attended by, among others, parents of the housing committee of the Lebanon School District’s Follow Through/Headstart Policy Advisory Committee. Through the efforts of Lebanon native and U.S. Sen. Norris Cotton, Lebanon had been chosen for one of the pilot programs to provide “follow-up” educational and social services for Head Start children from kindergarten to third grade. The Family Center was meeting place for the policy advisory committee.
At the meeting, one parent suggested, “Since Nashua has VOICE, then let’s be Listen.” Heads nodded in agreement. Another parent, Holly Stark, exclaimed: “Yes, Listen! And it can stand for Lebanon in Service to Each Neighbor.” There was quick agreement, and within a few days, incorporation papers were filed in Concord and the group was granted IRS tax exempt nonprofit status.
The parent group quickly got to work.
The initial focus was organizing for decent, affordable housing, a cause that continues to resonate to this day, in Lebanon, around the Upper Valley and across the country. The defining struggle pitted the Lebanon Housing Authority versus the Lebanon City Council majority to construct the city’s first family public housing community. Listen joined the fray as the voice of low-income tenants, led by Follow Through parent and Listen leader Marcia Boutin. Marcia was born and raised in Lebanon, becoming a working class homeowner, and thereby someone without fear of landlord retaliation for being a forceful public voice.
As the public housing battle dragged on, Listen tackled other housing and poverty issues, creating services like a thrift store, community garden and food-buying club.
When most Upper Valley residents today think of the Listen Thrift Store, they think of the sprawling building on Lebanon’s Miracle Mile, across from the Price Chopper food market, which formerly housed Bridgman’s Furniture for more than 100 years. You know, the building with the parking lot that is always full, seven days a week, and many mornings has a line stretching out to the street with vehicles waiting to drop off donated food, clothing, furniture and other items, to be resold to the community at bargain-basement prices. Or they might think of the recently built thrift store on Route 4 in White River Junction that also houses a community dining hall that, pre-pandemic, served free hot meals year-round, six days a week, and more recently has provided more than 200 to-go meals per day to those in need. Or Mascoma residents might think of the satellite thrift store on Route 4 in West Canaan. But that is now.
In 1972, Marcia Boutin cajoled former Olympian and ski jumping star Ernie Dion to let Listen set up shop in a cramped side room of his small ski shop on Hanover Street Extension in Lebanon. A Valley News reporter from that era recalls Marcia driving around in her paneled, older-model Ford station wagon, collecting donations of clothing (along with furniture and appliances), bringing them to her River Street home, adjacent to the old Rockdale store, washing and ironing them, and then toting them to the little thrift store to be sold for, perhaps, 50 cents or a dollar.
Roger Dion, Ernie’s son and a former ski jumping star as well, speaking from his home in Vero Beach, Fla., recalled, “My dad owned the apartment building. I don’t know what the arrangements were, but we knew Marcia’s family very well. Her brother, Alex, was one of my best friends. Marcia was a great person. She wasn’t in this for the money. She didn’t have a lot of money. It was all from her heart.”
The thrift store grew and, in 1973, relocated to larger quarters at 92 Hanover St., a vacant home owned by the Citgo Corp. and current site of a mini-mart and Dunkin’ Donuts. The building also housed a food-buying club and youth center. A hot meal was usually available to those needing one.
“I remember painting the sign for that place when I was 12 years old,” said Andy Boutin, Marcia’s youngest son, in a recent interview at his home on Hough Street, three houses up from Listen’s current administrative building on High Street. “I wish I had a picture of it.
“My mom loved to cook and can. When she was growing up on Mascoma Street, my grandparents had two large garden plots, about 100 feet by 50 feet, so she learned it from them. My mom would teach people how to preserve what they had grown in the community garden, so they’d have food in the winter. I can remember her in that kitchen, making 10 chocolate cream pies and a cooking a turkey. We weren’t poor ourselves, but we helped a lot of poor people.”
The community garden, located on Heater Road, was plowed for free by local resident Howard Townsend, who also happened to be New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture. Vegetables were harvested, as well as friendship, and understanding. The food-buying club offered fresh produce, bread and cheese at wholesale prices, including bulk cheese from Cabot Creamery. The emergency food shelf gathered donations of canned dry goods from churches, Scout groups and the general public.
As Listen continued to grow, it needed more space, and Marcia was heard to comment, “I’ve got my eye on Scottie’s Rooming House.” Before long, Listen had moved again, to the current administrative building, which housed the thrift store and donation center for several decades.
As this was happening, the fight continued for a low-income housing community. A majority on the City Council, and certain members of the Planning Board, did everything they could to block approval and construction, finding fault with several different locations, including the project’s final home on South Main Street in West Lebanon.
In May of 1972, attorney William Craig, representing that opposing coalition, appealed the Zoning Board’s unanimous approval of the South Main Street site, according to a Valley News article, asserting the project was “not consistent with the health, safety, morals or general welfare of the city of Lebanon (and) does not provide adequate light and air, promotes overcrowding of the land, undue population concentration” and does not have “adequate transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks and other (necessities).”
The Zoning Board threw out all these and other objections, and the project, Romano Circle, was finally built. Listen helped the initial tenants form a Residents Council.
During this time, Listen also pushed for improvements in substandard local housing, helping renters file various code complaints. While some were evicted, Listen convinced the City Council to adopt an ordinance protecting tenants from landlord reprisal for six months after filing a housing-related complaint and also backed a rent watch, monitoring rent increases. Listen leaders achieved activation of the city’s substandard housing board, which had been HUD-mandated after the 1964 Lebanon fire, but had been dormant since its creation. At an October 1972 meeting, Boutin said she knew of at least 27 houses in the city that were substandard and said, “It’s up to the Board of Substandard Housing to do something about these wrecks. It’s a losing battle for people who live in these houses.” Then-City Manager Phil Richards thereupon agreed to adopt a once-a-month schedule for the board, the Valley News reported.
In 1973, Listen’s membership jumped from 35 to 80 — and by 1974, 135 regular and 50 supporting members. Regular membership was $1 and supporting members, who didn’t consider themselves poor, paid $3 or more. The group’s income came via these members, as well as the thrift store, contributions and the United Way of the Upper Valley. By 1974, Listen was sponsoring monthly workshops on issues like welfare, nutrition and community gardening, and hosting speakers like Dr. Benjamin Spock, the 1972 People’s Party candidate for president.
Throughout, Listen provided a clear incentive to join without losing sight of the group’s guiding purpose — to improve the basic living conditions of people on the lower rungs of the social and economic ladder.
Listen leaders had the foresight to realize that while working on today’s issues, one mustn’t lose sight of the need to ensure the organization’s survival tomorrow. Hundreds of Lebanon and Upper Valley residents can rightfully take pride in helping achieve what are now five decades of sustainable success.
Looking back, Roger Dion reflects: “When we first heard about Listen, my dad and all of us thought it was a great idea. At the time, we didn’t think it would amount to anything. But look what it has become.”
Hanover native William Weismann was a VISTA volunteer from 1972-74 and continued as a Listen community organizer through the 1970s. Dick Nelson was Lebanon reporter for the Valley News from 1972-75. He lives on Poverty Lane in Lebanon.