Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society
WINTER 2009
The Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society will hold its annual tree lighting and caroling ceremony at 4:30 pm Sunday, Dec. 6 on the Jaffrey Center Common, followed by refreshments at 5 p.m. at the Oribe Barn, 384 Main Street. The Monadnock Inn's annual Christmas Dinner will be held at 6 pm. Call the Inn for reservations. The JCVIS decorated and raised a 16' holiday tree on the Common near the Meetinghouse and The First Church in Jaffrey on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Helping were, L-R, Dick Ames, Don and Pat MacIsaac, Janet Grant, Heather Ames, Christine Pedott, Ken Campbell, and photographer Suze Campbell.
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JULY 2009
Jaffrey
Center Village
Improvement
Society Votes
To Conserve
Small Plots
in Historic
Village Area 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.
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PHOTOS FROM THE MEETING
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PLATES FOR SALE
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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)
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Marshal the Willing Forces; A Centennial History of the Jaffrey Center Village Improvement Society |
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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)