Hinesburg Historical Society

Minutes for September 24, 2009 

Present: Kate Bissonette, Michael Bissonette, Marshall Delaire, Maggie Gordon, Aaron Kimball, Kitty LaClair, Jean Miner, Suzanne Richard, John Roberts, Sue Roberts, Ann Thomas

Jean made a minor change to the August minutes: that the land where the CVU track was and where the athletic fields were used to belong to her father. [The group never did get around to approving the minutes – MG]

Kate and Wayne Bissonette brought in a clipping that was sent to them by John Pierce (now in Florida) about the murder that took place in 1935 in the house at the corner of Silver St. and what used to be Friendship Lane.

Jean brought in a 1930 photo of the Silver St. covered bridge, as well as a 1939 aerial photo of the town that shows the covered bridge gone and a cement one in its place. Marshall identified this as one of the photos taken by George Lathrop, many of which are now housed in the Sheldon Museum. Jean also passed around a newspaper clipping from 1900 that mentions the Hinesburg railroad.

Maggie asked for feedback on the list of current projects that she sent to everyone by email; the list will be displayed as part of the Fall Festival on Saturday. Ann talked about the first item (the 1-day museum), saying that she and Suzanne were considering dropping it as a yearly event and perhaps continuing it instead as a tie-in with the Fall Festival. [The group did not return to discussing the list, but Suzanne helpfully added additional items and text to it.-MG]

Jean then talked about the building that is now the Police Station: it used to house the meat market of a previous owner, Harrison Owen. It has historical value and she hopes the town wouldn’t consider tearing it down. Ann talked about looking for a display case to hold some of the materials the HHS has collected, and wondered where it could go. 

Ann talked about a project she’s started on old houses in town: collecting information about them, cataloging them, photographing them, collecting their stories and evolution. She’s started by pegging some of the houses on Google Earth, and then overlaying older maps of the town. She’s also set up a spreadsheet to organize the information by road. She’d like to post the information on the HHS website and showed us a sample page of the Roomet house. She’d like to use the web site to collect additional information from visitors by asking what details or stories they could add. An article in the Record could help to draw visitors to the web site.

Suzanne mentioned the possibility of having a house tour of places on the outskirts of town to complement the in-town walking tour that is currently under construction. She thought that an in-town tour might be limited. Michael disagreed, and listed a number of buildings on both sides of the street that would be great candidates for a walking tour, and that had long and interesting stories behind them. Jean thought that George’s walking tour would be more architectural than historical.

The meeting trailed off into numerous digressions at this point, and the secretary was unable to keep up.

The group ended by talking about the display and schedule for Saturday’s Fall Festival. Suzanne and Ann painted and put together display doors for Jean Masseau’s portrait series, and Brad Wainer has offered the use of a table he has that was made in Hinesburg. Other display items include photos and maps that Jean brought in, the list of current projects that Maggie put together in addition to a sign-up sheet for new members, as well as a select number of Mystery Photos for visitors to add comments to.