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Originally Posted by WeirsGuard
From childhood through my college years my family spent the summer at the New Hampshire Veteran's Association. We lived in the Sharpshooter's Building each year. Many friends and relatives rented buildings through out the summer and it was an ideal place to grow up, set right in the Weirs.
What always amazed me, and kindled my lifetime interest in History, was the treasure trove of Civil War artifacts contained in each of these buildings. Photographs, artwork, military equipment. Each building had a theme related to the regiments or units that stayed there. In addition, the Headquarters Building had a small upstairs museum containing an eclectic collection of items donated and collected by the veterans over the years. There were several muskets, (Harpers Ferry, 1858's), sabers, uniforms, more photos and atrwork and a stovepipe hat supposedly left behind by Lincoln during his travel East and picked up by a NH man working for the reailroad at the time, who fought in one of the NH Regimants during the war a few years later.
Over the years these items were pillfered or lost to fire. Concerned, my brother and I offered to catalog all the items in the mid 70's so they could be controlled and properly displayed. The Quartermaster at the time was not interested. In fact, he was later found to have sold off some of the items. I remember him even entertaining an offer for one of the Headquarter's cannon proffered by a South Carolina group who were camping on the site to participate in a battle re-enactment on the grounds.
Long story to get my question. Does anyone know what became of all the memorabilia? Has it been consolidated and stored? DO they still ahve teh museum?
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WeirsGuard, I have some very good news. In a letter dated November 7, 2008, Dennis Covey, the President of the NHVA, wrote to the NHVA membership as follows:
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We took some big steps this year towards a goal that has been on our back-burner for a number of years. And that is our museum. This year I appointed a new historian to take over for Ken Leidner who had been doing it for a number of years, but due to health issues wasn't able to continue as we have expanded that role.
With the approval of our Board of Directors and then a By-Law change which was approved at the annual meeting the role has been redefined to Historian/Museum Director. Charlie Toutant has stepped into that job and has begun to make some real progress in turning our dream into reality. He has met with with an architect and museum experts and this looks like it will finally happen.
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I checked the bylaws, and the key part of section 10 reads as follows:
It shall be the duty of the Historian/Museum Director to be responsible for the collection, categorization and storage of all artifacts of historical consequence of the NHVA...and to supervise training of all docent volunteers for the museum, and to set the hours of operation and manage the exhibit.
I believe that the NHVA has always had in mind the former Jean's Cafe/Elvio's/Mike's NY Pizza building as the location for the museum. This is on the site of where the
3rd regiment building burnt down in 1924, to the left of the NHVA HQ. I don't know for sure that this is where the museum would be located, but the building is currently vacant, so I'd say its a high probability.
I think it would a great addition to the area, so I wish them the best of luck.
