LYNDEBOROUGH – The mission of the Heritage Commission is to locate and protect the man-made history of the town. They are a counterpart of the Conservation Commission which looks at the natural parts. They also work closely with the Historical Society which collects the written record, documents and artifacts.

The man-made history includes public buildings, cemeteries, old cellar holes and stone culverts, monuments and significant stone walls. It also includes old houses. Documenting the Town Hall was fairly easy, but old houses, not so much.

Lyndeborough was first settled in 1737, but there are few houses in town that pre-date 1800. There are many, however, that were built before the Civil War. The town history of 1905 lists all the houses in town at that time.

About ten years ago, the Commission decided to update that list and divided the town among the five members of the Commission. Two problems surfaced immediately. In 1905, the town roads did not have names and all houses were listed by the then owner.

A typical entry in the list reads: “returning again to the intersection of the road, to the place once fixed upon as the centre of the old Salem-Canada township, where was the home of John Cram, the first settler . . .”

That intersection is now Locust Lane and Putnam Hill Road, but there is nothing left of the meeting house that was begun and never finished at that ‘centre.’ Or of Cram’s house.

Long-time residents were consulted. When one house was identified, the one “two houses further west” was also found. As each old house was identified, it was photographed, given the current address, keyed to the town tax map. A page was established for each house and all information in the history was added. That information is not yet available on line.

As Commission members changed the number of willing researchers dwindled, but the project is still alive and on-going. Information and old pictures are added as they are found. The original three-ring binder now fills two of them.

There are plans to complete the project. Many houses have no information other than what is in the history. Where former owners are listed, a search is made in the genealogies, a sometimes frustrating process that takes time.

The Commission has identified about 125 houses built prior to 1904, but during the past ten years, five of those have vanished, four of them demolished by the owner. Homeowners can, of course, demolish a house if they wish and there are many reasons to do so. One house in South Lyndeborough was lost to fire.

The Commission considers two vanished buildings of historic value: the office of the former Lyndeborough Glass Company on Glass Factory Road, and Hunter’s Cot, a camp on the highpoint of Mountain Road built as a summer camp in the 1880s. There is little information about either one.

The Commission would like to ensure other significant places are documented.

A few years ago, at the request of the Heritage Commission, the town’s demolition permit asks, if the structure is over 100 years old, the Commission be advised and allow to photograph it if they find it of historic interest. It is a request only as the Commission is advisory only.

The Old House Project has been on hold because of COVID problems and other issues, but it is a continuing one. There is a possibility that it may at some point be printed.

Any resident with stories or old pictures of their homes, or if new owners want what is known, contact the Commission through the town office, 603-654-5955.