Lesson in generosity: Spirol funds boxcar pavilion
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Fingers crossed for good construction weather for Woodstock Building Associates. The goal is to finish the installation of a pavilion behind the Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children Museum by the end of April.
Because, according to museum director Pat Hedenberg, 115 third-graders will descend on the boxcar museum April 30 and May 1. The museum and the Municipal Complex host the students each year for hands-on history lessons.
Museum officials said: “This pavilion will enable the museum to welcome students on field trips not only to spend time inside the museum learning about Putnam’s own author, Gertrude Chandler Warner, but also to participate in activities in a sheltered outdoor area.”
Spirol Charitable Foundation contributed $45,000 total for the installation of the pavilion. Hedenberg said the 14-foot by 20-foot prefabricated pavilion will be used for crafts, music, lessons and even town events. When the kids come, the buses run between the Municipal Complex (where they learn about Gertrude Warner and Putnam’s history at the library and Aspinock Historical Society) and the boxcar museum. If it’s raining there isn’t enough room for the students in the boxcar and the buses may or may not be at the museum.
The educational use for the pavilion is only fitting as Putnam’s favorite daughter, Gertrude Chandler Warner, author of the Boxcar series of children’s books, was an elementary school teacher.
Originally Hedenberg went before the Spirol board last January. She asked for $50,000 for the replacement of rotted rail ties underneath the boxcar and the pavilion.
Board member Jim Shaw had asked Hedenberg “if she could dream, what would she love to see on the museum grounds.” The pavilion. They approved the $10,000 cost of the rail tie replacement as it was urgent and asked her to come back later with details for the pavilion.
The project kept expanding. Last fall she thought “What about landscaping?” The town asked what else should be there? Former Parks and Recreation Director Willie Bousquet made several suggestions. What about lights? So she asked Chaput Electric, which had donated electrical work when the museum was renovated, for a quote. He suggested adding a plug in case something might need to be plugged in. Then she got a quote for a 4-foot vinyl fence that would run along the top of the hill, between South Main and the boxcar. Then Bousquet suggested that crushed stone should be added along the fence so the fence would not be damaged by mowers. Jeff Rawson of Rawson Materials is donating that, just as Rawson had donated the stone used when the rail ties were replaced last year. And what about labor? Hedenberg asked NEPS Iron Horse for a quote.
When she’d gathered all the quotes, she appeared before the Spirol foundation board again. She said she presented two proposals: One very simple including the pavilion, electrical work and vinyl picnic tables and the other with the dream items.
The board OK’d the dream proposal. Jeffery Koehl, president of Spirol and chair of the Spirol Charitable Foundation, told Hedenberg where to get the vinyl picnic tables as she was having trouble locating a source for those.
Aspinock Historical Society president John Miller thanked Hedenberg and Barbara Scalise for their hard work on the grant. The pavilion will be named the Fred Hedenberg Boxcar Pavilion after the late Fred Hedenberg, a longtime society member who made the boxcar museum happen years ago.
The pre-fab pavilion from Kloter Farm is rectangular and is made of white vinyl with a brown roof. Woodstock Building Associates will be installing it. Last fall the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals approved a rear yard variance for the project, from the required 20 feet to 4 feet.
Now all we need is good weather.
caption, page 5: The pavilion Woodstock Building Associates will be installing near the boxcar museum. It's from Kloter Farm and it's white vinyl with a brown roof.
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