LYNDEBOROUHGH – The results of an inspection of the stone arch bridges on Old Temple Road have been received. The two dry stone bridges are rated “fair to good” condition.

The evaluation was conducted by Michael Weitzner of Thistle Stone Works in Brattleboro, Vt. Weitzner is a member of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain and holds a Master Craftsman

Certificate.

The evaluation was approved by voters at Town Meeting in March.

The report recommends a closer look and possible reconstruction of a former concrete buttress at the bottom of the larger arch. The buttress was likely constructed in the mid-1900s to protect the bottom of the arch from high water. The “rubble” sidewalls should also be evaluated and possibly reconstructed.

Cost of that work and some restoration of the smaller arch, is estimated between $15,000 and $25,000 depending on what is found by a closer examination.

Grants are available for such work and the Heritage Commission will look into those sources.

The arches are also eligible for inclusion on the State and National Register of Historic Places. That possibility is also planned for the future.

A historic marker will be placed in the parking area beside the railroad tracks.

Use of the old road over the bridges for a park and picnic area has been discussed.

The bridges and a nearby dam were constructed in 1873 by Alvaro Buttrick, replacing a bridge built downstream about 50 years earlier. Since the construction is described as “rough” or “rustic,” it is possible they were constructed by a crew building the near-by railroad at that time.

The town accepted the road in 1893, and they were used until by-passed by a new bridge in 2005.

The dam was removed in the 1960s.

Alvaro Buttrick owned a mill upstream from the bridges. According to the Donovan History of 1905, the mill was originally the site of a fulling mill (where hand woven cloth was finished) built by Joshua Sargent . That mill was replaced by John Newell and used to make doorknobs. It was at one time a cabinetry shop owned by Daniel Cragin, who was an apprentice in Newell’s shop..

Cragin sold the mill in 1858 and moved to Wilton where he founded what is now Frye’s Measure Mill.

In 1905, the site was owned by James Colburn who operated a grist mill. No signs of the mill buildings remain.