caption, page 6:

 

Grand Reopening

The Woodstock Fair's Main Exhibition Hall was restored recently. Left: Mike Blanchflower, builder; above Mike Alberts presents state Citation to Susan Lloyd, president. Linda Lemmon photos.

 

 

Restored 

Exhibition 

Hall

shines

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

WOODSTOCK --- For builder Mike Blanchflower, the best part of the restoration of the Main Exhibition Hall at the Woodstock Fairgrounds was getting the building back to the way it was.

The opening of the 155th Woodstock Fair was a special one this year as the Woodstock Agricultural Society celebrated the grand reopening of the restored hall. President Susan Lloyd said the original one-story section of the building, measuring 36 feet by 96 feet, opened in 1874. In 1885 the three-story front section was added. The second and third floors were leased to the Masons and the Grange, she said.  The society knew the building needed attention and began serious discussions around 2010. Blanchflower, of Woodstock, began work in December and tackled the foundations and sills and supports of the building. Parts of the building were sagging. Parts were too high. Parts were leaning in 8 inches. Foundations were missing and rotting sills were sitting on dirt. The Douglas fir beams to raise the building, he said,  were 36 feet long and the door underneath the main floor was not large enough to allow the beams to go inside and turn. Builders solved that problem by cutting slots in the floor to get the beams in. 

Blanchflower said that raising and lowering the building took "a lot of the winter." Then the foundations were addressed. He said 196 feet of foundations were rebuilt and replaced.  

The foundation problems were the biggest surprise, Blanchflower said. It was assumed that there were no problems with the foundations, but there were. The most challenging part of the project was "getting the beams in and getting this building straightened out." he added.

Blanchflower was assisted by Jonathan Davol. Davol said, "We work well together."

More was learned about the building, Blanchflower said, when beams were discovered stamped "Warren Lumber Company" from New Hampshire. "Those would have had to have been brought by rail into Putnam and then put on wagons and moved to the Woodstock Fair site. 

He added that the windows of the main hall were covered. The team painstakingly uncovered the windows and removed them, taking care to save the wavy glass. He said Ray Gagne of Andover, a third-generation window builder, recreated 43 windows, using the wavy glass the contractors had saved. 

Upstairs, Blanchflower said, they were able to replace the lost dormer brackets with fancy cast iron ones. 

State Rep Mike Alberts presented the society with a state citation. Lloyd said the exhibition hall has become an iconic symbol of the Woodstock Fair.

"This building is a statement of why we're here," she added.