Grand Re-Opening & “Women’s Lives in Royalston” Exhibit May 19th 2024

Posted on May 2 2024 by Royalston Historical Society

village improvement and historical society of Royalston, Inc.

ROYALSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM

1 On the Common, Royalston, MA
GRAND RE-OPENING
Sunday, May 19 2:00pm – 4:00pm

WOMEN’S LIVES IN ROYALSTON

After renovation and an inventory of collections, enjoy an extensive exhibit about women’s  lives in Royalston including:

  • 200 years of LBS – Featuring a dozen hand painted posters from the turn of the 20th century
  • The importance of the Palm Leaf Braiding Industry
  • Education – Including the School for the Conservation of American Girlhood in South Royalston
  • Elections – Womens participation (then and now). Sample some “Election Cake” made by the Ladies B (a 19th century recipe)
  • The South Royalston Signature Quilt – On loan from the Athol
    Historical Society, this documented applique quilt from 1885 features a man walking a pig, sap collecting, cats, dogs and scores of homey images! A MUST SEE!
  • Learn about our artists, poets, journalists, fashionistas, daring-doers, etc.

 

Quarterly Meeting and Events

Posted on May 8 2017 by Royalston Historical Society

As was previously stated, Kathy Morris did a great talk and photo display on the weaving that took place in the Royalston area in the 1800s and the people involved in this occupation. Prior to the talk, a wonderful meal was served which was enjoyed by the people who took advantage of both the talk and meal.

The next event that was sponsored by the Historical Society was the annual Jazz Brunch which took place at the ballroom in The Maples, the home of Patience Bundshuh. An afternoon of music was festive and enjoyable as was the brunch that was set up for the attendees. This was started as a tribute to Jerry Chiasson who loved to play the drums and even at 95 years of age played with a band. He began his love affair with the drums during his time in the service in WWII. We hope to keep this tradition going. All the proceeds from these two functions benefit our restoration of the society building. One individual has been very generous to the society. To this person and to all who have been helping us preserve a piece of our history, a heartfelt thanks.

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Royalston Historical Society Meeting July 15, 2016

Posted on October 6 2016 by Royalston Historical Society

Meeting was called to order at 7:12 PM in the society building on The Common. 15 members and guests were present.

The April minutes were read. A motion was made to accept the minutes as read and approved by a unanimous vote.

Total paid out for work on the building so far has been $79,000.
Total cash on hand is $9000 plus.
Appeal mailings to date have brought in $5,000 and the Jazz Brunch $700 plus.
Currently 99 people are members of the society.
If all monies for grants come in then we will have $20,000
New membership reminders will go out in August
Mark Smith is moving and therefore will step down as treasurer and Susan Smith as Secretary. Therefore we need two new officers with knowledge of computers.

Pierre reminded us that the roof still needs to be done
The work that is being done now must be finished by June.
If not completed we will have to stop work as the funds to cover it will not be there ,
The roof was last replaced in 1981, We would need at least $25,ooo to do the roof.
The roofing will put us over the limit by which we would have to follow which is the ADA handicapped access law.
We have seen that the town has made a $38,000 profit from the post Office and we are not currently charging them rent.
Phil Leger said that handicap access is driven by the fact that we are a public building. Look at New salem.

Discussion ensued about photographing all the old buildings in town so that we have a record of them. Pierre suggests documenting all houses from 1900 on because we have documentation on others.

NEW BUSINESS:
Uniquely Quabbin called to ask if there is anything to put in the magazine but nothing by the time of publication.
Beth : There is need for a committee for the town supper on Sept 10th which the ladies of the society agreed to take over.
Also would like to have a committee to do a walking tour of South Royalston.
The is a need to activate the Program Committee to plan programs for future meetings.
Meeting was Adjourned at7:40 and refreshments were served.
The Cd compiled by Boyd Estes on the floods and other activities was shown.The original could not be seen. This was only a small part of a larger picture of the past.The society has the old films.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth Gospodarek
Sec, Pro-temp

Successful Dinner on Sept. 10

Posted on September 14 2016 by Royalston Historical Society

The Royalston Country Fair was held on Saturday September 10th. As part of the activities, the Historical Society put on the supper that evening with cooks from around town providing their particular expertise in the culinary area. Coordinating the supper was Beth Gospodarek and along with other ladies of the society smoothly had all aspects of the night under control. A variety of soups were brought out. The main course had many tantalizing dishes followed by numerous desserts. Prior to the meal, a cocktail hour was observed downstairs in the town hall with Carl Kamp providing music.

I wish to thank all who assisted, all who provided food and those that came to enjoy the evening. After supper a 15 minute film was shown of the floods that happened in 1936/38 and other activities of bygone days.

The proceeds of the supper will help to continue the work being done on the Historical Society building.

Again, Thank you for your support.

Treasurer and Secretary Positions Available.

Posted on July 18 2016 by Royalston Historical Society

We’re looking for someone who is good in finances to step up and become treasurer as well as a person who is good at note-taking for the secretary’s position.

Please click this link to fill out the application below with your information and we’ll get back to you if we believe you’re a good match for the Society.

Historical Society Building Update

Posted on July 8 2016 by Royalston Historical Society

As one drives South down the Common going to Athol, they now view a gleaming white building facing them. It has been a long struggle since the scrapping started in January when two men started the process.Work was problematic at times because of the weather but those men worked when the weather was acceptable to work. When work reached the cupola it was found that there were problems that had to be addressed and were as best as could be. The windows were taken out and worked on and when the fire escape was looked at, it too had to be scrapped, painted. stairs fixed and a pad put down to place the stairs on. No pad existed, therefore the bottom step had settled into the ground and the stairway was pulling away from the building. The exit stairs were replaced and painted. When all is finished an accounting will be given to the state so we may receive the funds that were granted us for the project.

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250th Anniversary of Royalston

Posted on September 17 2015 by Royalston Historical Society

The celebration of the 250th Anniversary of Royalston was a wonderful weekend despite the rain. Jeff Newton and his committee did a great job.

The society had a float in the parade which took about 12 hours over Thursday and Friday to construct. The float measured 5feet by 8 feet by 10 feet tall with the cupola. Members and non-members were a great help in this effort. Thank you to Leslie and Tom Freudenheim, Ken and Andrea Lively, Patience Bundshuh and Sonja Vaccari. Husband, George pulled the float in the parade with his tractor and Steve Bocardi walked alongside. Thanks to all for your effort.

The weekend before, (Sept.6th) we finished the cleaning of the building and revamping of some exhibits with the help of Steve Chase, Beth Gospodarek and Marie Humblett. Thank you.

During Saturday, when the museum was opened there were people who manned the museum. John McClure, Sue and Mark Smith Pierre Humblett and Raeann and Roger O’Donnell. The museum had various displays from past celebrations plus a quilt show with 21 quilts on display, the oldest from 1840 and one on loan from the Athol Historical Society that was made in South Royalston in 1885. Stephanie McClure helped with the tag sale we had on the lawn. Any amount helps us to attain our goal.

I must mention that there were two young people who were inside the float as the back was cut out for them to toss candy to the crowd and they were Gabriel Dawson and Samantha West.

Again, thank you to everyone who aided us and forgive me if I forgot anyone.

Quilt showcase and cleaning the RHS building

Posted on August 27 2015 by Royalston Historical Society

Many years ago when the Society use to do the Flea Market we put on a display of quilts. We would like to do the same for the 250th so if you have any antique quilts or any that you may have made and would like to help us by showing your handiwork, it would be greatly appreciated. Kindly leave you name and address with Janice at the Post Office and we will contact you. Set up would be Friday night the 11th of September.

Also on the 29th of August, next Saturday, if you have some time and energy we could use some help to dust and clean the building. We would start about 9AM. We will try to have cleaning stuff available.