OTISFIELD — The Otisfield Town House was lowered onto its new foundation Friday morning, the same day the Otisfield Historical Society received news of a $20,000 donation to build the addition it had planned for the future.
Society President Henry Hamilton called lowering the building the biggest and most dramatic part of the restoration to make the 1905 building the society headquarters, a town archives repository and a venue for town activities and events. It’s on Bell Hill Road a short way from Route 121.
He said he received news Friday that the Davis Family Foundation will donate $20,000, which should cover the cost of constructing a cellar floor with radiant heat tubing, and materials and construction of the shell over the extended foundation at the back of the building. The society had the foundation for the addition done this year and planned to cap it, he said, until there was money to finish it.
With the donation, the walls and roof can go up.
The site preparation and foundation work are estimated to cost about $55,000, Hamilton has said. The building is in wetlands, so the area was built up 44 inches so it could stay on its original footprint, as required by the National Register of Historic Places.
Other work includes a new roof, digging a well, installing a septic system, adding plumbing and electrical systems and landscaping.
The wood-frame building was deeded to the society by voters in 2009, after it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. It replaced an earlier one at the same location and was used for town meetings, selectmen’s meeting and voting.
It was also used as a social and meeting hall through the 1920s, but in 1985 town meetings were moved to the municipal building on Route 121, according to Maine Historic Preservation Commission records. Voting continued at the Town House until 2002, when the building was closed to public use.
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