GRAFTON — The cap is back on the Grafton Brick Meeting House after the Grafton Historical Society completed repairs to the building's spire.
Repaired most recently in 1922, the spire needed a new vertical beam and boards repaired to keep it sturdy for the next 100 years.
The iron weather vane also was repaired, as it was found to have been pierced by a bullet.
The restoration of the spire of the brick meeting house that used to house the South Congregational Society was a project this past year for its current owners, the Grafton Historical Society.
The meeting house, built in 1833 and 1834, has stood as a proud Grafton landmark for nearly 180 years. The sturdy brick building is on the National Register of Historic Places and included in the Library of Congress Historical American Buildings Survey.
It also is considered a late example of classic New England architecture.
Upon assuming ownership of the building a few years ago, the Historical Society first installed a new furnace and undertook structural repairs to the floor. Next on the list, the owners said: repairing and preserving interior décor.
The spire is significant to the life of the church as well as the town. The Aug. 30, 1933 edition of the Bellows Falls Times reported that Indiana state Rep. Samuel B. Pettengill, whose family had lived in Grafton for five generations, spoke at the centennial of the church.
He said, “To me a church without a spire is not a church. In derivation, the word 'spire' has nothing to do with 'aspire,' but to me they mean the same thing. To me a spire represents a church's hands upraised to God.”