Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society
SUMMER 2010

Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society Holds 104th Annual Meeting at 4 p.m., Saturday, July 24

The Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society will hold its 104th Annual Meeting on Saturday, July 24 at 4:00 pm at Melville Academy, at the corner of Thorndike Pond Road and Blackberry Lane in Jaffrey.

Individual VIS members and all who are interested in joining the society are encouraged to attend, said Kenneth Campbell, president.  Members live in all parts of Jaffrey, in other New Hampshire towns and in eight states from Maine to North Carolina to Ohio.

In addition to electing officers, the JCVIS members will hear a report on the Society’s work regarding holding conservation easements from land owners who wish to maintain the open space and historic character that is represented by the Jaffrey Center area, which includes a National Historic District.

The members at last year’s annual meeting voted unanimously to authorize the holding of such easements in order to preserve the character of the Jaffrey Center and its environs.  The JCVIS took the action because parcels in the Jaffrey Center area may not meet the conservation easement requirements of major conservation organizations


Contact president@jcvis.org.

JULY 2009

Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society Votes To Conserve Small Plots in Historic Village Area

103rd Annual Meeting Endorses Saving Character of Area

The Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society voted Sunday (7/26/09) at its 103rd Annual Meeting to empower the non-profit organization to hold conservation easements from land owners who wish to maintain the open space and historic character that is represented by the Jaffrey Center area, which includes a National Historic District.

Kenneth Campbell, president, said, “The members voted unanimously to authorize the Board of Directors to proceed with the recommendations and steps of the Conservation Easement Committee.

We intend to model our procedures on those developed over the past decades by the Monadnock Conservancy and the Forest Society.”

The recommendations of the VIS Conservation Easement Committee can be found here; the initial proposal by six home owners would conserve some 30 acres of contiguous open spaces in Jaffrey Center, where zoning requires just one acre per house. “The development of all this open space to its highest marketable use would likely destroy the Jaffrey Center landscape,” said Richard Ames, the chair of the committee

The VIS, in addition to maintaining at private expense the Horsesheds, Melville Academy and 16 acres of parks and commons open to the public, organizes a variety of community events and assists the Town in maintaining the Meetinghouse. It also maintains a website, www.jcvis.org, and operates the Melville Academy Museum, which opens its doors on summer weekends from 2 pm to 4 pm.

The nearly 300 members of the VIS live in all parts of Jaffrey, in other New Hampshire towns and in eight states from Maine to North Carolina to Ohio.

Following the meeting, the JCVIS Board met and voted to amend the articles of agreement–its charter– to authorize explicitly the holding of easements, which was an implict power in the existing charter.

Articles sold by the VIS include sets of the VIS Centennial Plates by Spode, depicting old scenes of the village and Mt. Monadnock, and the VIS history, “Marshal the Willing Forces,” by Robert B. Stephenson, an entertaining record of the preservation of the area.

Contact president@jcvis.org.


PHOTOS FROM THE 2009 MEETING



 

PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE

THE JAFFREY CENTER Village Improvement Society is pleased to announce two new publications which have been issued to commemorate the Centennial of the VIS. Both are now available from the Society. (Marshal the Willing Forces may be obtained from the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce and The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough.) These companion publications were researched, written and produced by VIS member Robert B. Stephenson and make use of the minutes, records, photographs and ephemera of the Society. Many of the images included have never appeared in print before. (more information)


Marshal the Willing Forces; A Centennial History of the Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society

100 years; A Commemorative Keepsake Celebrating the Centennial Year of the Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society,

HISTORY: The Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society was founded in August 1906 by a group of nine women and two men —both year-round and summer residents—…to improve and to ornament the streets and public grounds of Jaffrey Center and vicinity.” Since that first annual meeting, it has preserved and continues to maintain, for the benefit of all, over 16 acres of commons, parks, lawns and meadows in the village. Since 1919 the VIS has done the same for Melville Academy—Jaffrey’s own local history museum.

The Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society is a nonprofit association which includes about 200 individuals and families from Jaffrey, the Monadnock region, Massachusetts and elsewhere who are committed to maintaining and sustaining a vibrant and historic New England village.

Persons interested in joining the JCVIS may write to the Society at Post Office Box 722, Jaffrey, New Hampshire 03452. Annual dues are $10.

Contact: Ken Campbell, President. (President@jcvis.org)





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