Remembering Our Loved Ones at Christmas, with the Historic Lower Waterford Congregational Church

The Lower Waterford Community Church with its Memory Tree lit.

Memory Tree Ceremony Start of Historic Birthday

WATERFORD – Members of the Congregational Church invite the public to help kick off the 160^th birthday of its historic edifice during the annual Memory Tree Lighting Ceremony Sunday, December 2 at 6 p.m.

            Under the direction of Rev. Ann Hockridge, the annual observance heralds the start of the Christmas season in the historic village of Lower Waterford. This year it also includes an unveiling of planned events to celebrate the iconic building whose image has appeared on countless postcards, greeting cards, paintings, and even in a national TV advertisement.  

            “Faith is a continual act of renewal,” Hockridge noted. “The acts of members to preserve this structure as a community resource for future generations are a constant inspiration.”

Inside the church, at Christmas.

The symbolic tree lights honor the memories of people who made a difference in the lives of those around them. The church will print a commemorative program with their names for sharing with those who attend the ceremony.

Immediately following the observance, guests will socialize in the sanctuary with warm refreshments and music of the season. They will also hear of plans to commemorate the church building’s construction that took place in the second half of 1859 after a disastrous fire leveled the property at the corner of Lower Waterford Road and Maple Street.

Under the direction of then deacon and master joiner Francis Rice Carpenter, church members constructed an edifice in the Greek Revival style with such design elements as square-head openings over doors and windows and capped with pediment tops.

The Lower Waterford church was largely built by repurposing 1818 timbers from an original meetinghouse on Old County Road South near Mad Brook. Deacon Abial Richardson, one of Waterford’s original settlers, oversaw that construction on his property.

His portrait hangs in the church foyer along with other significant Waterford artifacts made by church members. Two of William “Red” Morrison miniatures of the church and of a Victorian house, previously exhibited at the Fairbanks Museum, and Windsor chairs made by Passumpsic farmer Charles D. Harris, father of Dr. Charles E. Harris, author of the only history book on Lower Waterford to date, are on display, along with painted pews from Richardson’s meetinghouse.

The new church was officially consecrated on January 11, 1860. Today, the Lower Waterford congregation is yoked with Third Congregational Church in East Saint Johnsbury. Rev. Hockridge pastors both with services alternating between the two locations.

A long-standing village tradition, the Memory Tree is an opportunity to reminisce about those who made a positive impact. Individuals who want to participate in this ceremony may submit names “In Memory of,” “In honor of,” or privately as “Loved ones.”

The deadline for receiving names for the remembrance program is Friday, Nov. 30. Donations are welcome. Please mail submissions to: Congregational Church, P.O. Box 111, Lower Waterford, VT 05848.

[Photos and text by Helen C. Pike]

 

Left to right: Carol Bonnett, Dot Willson, and Norma Switzer, at the Lower Waterford Community Church.

Digging into History, with Waterford's Kids and Coaches

Surveying the barnyard.

Waterford Historical Society Kids’ Presentation 
Wednesday, September 26, 6:30 pm
Community Room, downstairs in the Lower Waterford Congregational Church (next to the library and across from the Rabbit Hill Inn)
Lower Waterford, Vermont
*Free*

A week-long coached "dig" by kids in the barnyard of a historic barn yielded evidence of the farm's past uses, and lit interest in archaeology for grades 4-8 students in Waterford. See their discoveries and hear about this community collaboration.

Learning about Waterford's past.

This presentation the regularly scheduled Waterford Historical Society meeting, and also part of Vermont Archaeology Month.

How do archaeologists do this part?

Are you curious about what the students found? It was part of the local school's summer adventure camp, and was a big success! Each day the students gathered at "Base Camp" in the community room of the Lower Waterford Congregational Church, did some thinking and brainstorming with coaches like Helen Chantal Pike, Craig Brown, and Donna Heath, then walked the mile down the road to the farm.

Sifting the soil and hay -- what's in there?

Base Camp!

[Photos courtesy of Donna Heath and Helen Pike -- thank you!]

Grape-Nuts Cereal Commercial Featuring Lower Waterford

Image courtesy of ThrowAway History.

Talking about the Rabbit Hill Inn and its history always rambles around to the February 1975 commercial for Grape-Nuts cereal, where part of the filming angle is from the grounds of the inn. The cereal was considered a health food at the time, so the spokesman for the product here is Euell Gibbons, noted for his book Stalking the Wild Asparagus and other publications.

Click on this YouTube link to watch the ad! Anyone recall being an extra during the filming? (There are other Grape-Nuts ads with Mr. Gibbons on YouTube, but this is the only one set in Lower Waterford, Vermont.) All of the children of the Carroll family, the innkeepers at the time, took part.

If this makes you nostalgic or curious -- please join us Wed. July 25 at 6:30 pm, in the Community Room of the white church shown here (Lower Waterford Congregational Church), for the first ever Rabbit Hill Reminiscence Reunion, sponsored by the Waterford Historical Society.

Waterford's Historical Society and Church Collaborate: Yummy Benefit Event June 16

Here are the details from author Helen Pike, who's also a member of the Lower Waterford Congregational Church and president of the Waterford Historical Society:

Rhubarbecue, History Trivia: Perfect Together

WATERFORD - The Waterford Historical Society and the Congregational Church are finalizing plans for their annual joint benefit in June that celebrates rhubarb with a twist.

The centerpiece is an all-you-can-eat rhubarbecue buffet dinner with a culinary theme that extends through a choice of rhubarb-flavored desserts and includes rhubarb switchel as one of the drink options.

Helming the main course of pork and chicken choices is award-winning chef Brill Williams, who moved to this Connecticut River community after an illustrious 42-year career as the chef and co-owner with his parents of the Inn at Sawmill Farm in West Dover. Now enjoying a life of mostly leisure, Williams is the breakfast chef for the Rabbit Hill Inn across from the church.

“Cooking is part of my family heritage,” said William,s who still bakes with his mother, who is in her 90s. He is also contributing a salad of European cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese to the buffet dinner.

Sides by Waterford’s amateur, but avid cooks include farm-made baked beans, freshly sliced cole slaw, a simple green salad, and homemade rolls.

This annual event follows a long-time tradition in Waterford, said Norrine Abbott Williams, who serves the church as both a trustee and a deacon, but is no relation to the chef. Starting in the 1950s, the Ladies Social Circle hosted hugely successful lobster salad suppers followed by homemade strawberry shortcake with fruit grown in their gardens. Now, as then, the monies go to maintaining the historic building built in 1859.

“We’re five years into establishing a new tradition that highlights old-growth rhubarb found on the remaining farms here in town,” she added. “We couldn’t be happier to share this bounty with everyone.”

In 2014 the two community groups produced their first food-centric fund raiser that drew on recipes found in a 1955 church cookbook, including the late Irene Nutter’s rhubarb custard pie.

“We’ve updated those recipes and added to our collection of what you can make with rhubarb,” said WHS treasurer Roberta Smith who has been coordinating recipes and bakers since 2014. Besides pies in which different fruits will be combined to sweeten the tart rhubarb taste, other rhubarb-based dessert dishes are cookies, one-person tarts, and at least one cake.

Open to the public on both sides of the Connecticut, the evening’s second feature is what planners are hoping will be a spirited round of the Vermont Historical Society’s trivia game which is in the final stages of development.

“As a member organization in the VHS, we’re excited Waterford is a beta site for this work-in-progress,” said WHS president Helen Pike. “We’re working on a bonus round of 10 questions just about Waterford history that’s surprising even us!”

In addition to VHS rewards, planners are rounding up locally sourced prizes for top point winners. So far they include a jar of Williams’s signature homemade chocolate butternut sauce, a pint of syrup from Tom’s Maple, a signed copy of The Countryman Press edition of “Spiked Boots: Sketches of the North Country” by late Waterford author Robert E. Pike, and a signed copy of “The Darkness Under the Water” by today’s Waterford author Beth Kanell.

The WHS plans to use its portion of the proceeds to continue its oral history project and buy supplies for its ever-expanding paper and photographic archive.

The dinner is scheduled for Saturday, June 16, in the Community Room located on the lower level of the Lower Waterford church. The Maple Street door opens at 5:30 p.m. and serving starts at 6 p.m.

Tickets are $25. Only 80 will be sold. RSVPs due by Monday, June 11, for food planning purposes. To reserve group seating, call Pike at 802-748-0180.