PROGRAMS  THROUGH  THE   YEARS
 

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AUGUST 4, 2018:  "BARN-YARD SALE", a Fund Raiser to help with expenses to start work on the Dairy/Horse barn to make that a museum of "Family Farm Life in the 1800's". It was a georgous day for people to set up on "The Green" next to the Wait House with a wide variety of used, new, old and antique items they wanted to sell. The Carriage barn spaces were full of great treasures also. The traffic was quite steady through the day and all were pleased.

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JUNE 3, 2018:  "A GRAVESITE WALK", the Waitsfield and Fayston Historical Society presented a program consisting of  "A Little History of some of Yesterdays Folks". In Waitsfield, on private property, the original Stoddard Farm of 1794 was our first stop. This was on a hill with several headstones of Stoddard family names and also McAllister. A group of 17 people attended and were amazed that such a little gravesite existed (although in poor shape). Bob Danaher and Lois De Heer were the guides. Research on the headstones was done by Lois and printed out to present to all who attended. Center Fayston Cemetery was the other stop with Zelda LaVanway, the Fayston Cemetery Commissioner as our guide. She walked us through the very small cemetery and pointed out several well known names to the Valley, as McAllister, Strong and Colt, (who was related to Samuel Colt of the "Colt Fire-Arms Mfg. Co"

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DECEMBER 17, 2017:  "90th BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR 3": A birthday celebration was held at the Gen. Wait House for two of our present Board members, Judy Dodds and Bob Burley and a retired Board member, Jean Sherman. They each turned 90 within a month of each other. The meeting room was decorated with balloons, the table full of home baked goodies and a beautiful birthday cake from a local chef. Twenty-one people shared their special day with them.

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2013:  "LOCAL WAITSFIELD TOUR OF 3 HISTORIC SITES": People met in the elementary school parking lot in their car. A Historical Society member led the way and all followed. The first stop was on the North Road in the Elwin Neill north meadow where the very first homestead fire took place 1793/4. It was the log cabin of Daniel Taylor, an early settler of 1792. All people got out safe as written in the History of Waitsfield, by Matt Bushnell Jones. There is a poem written by one of the children who lived through the tragedy, Ithamar Smith in his adult years, in the Jones History book.  Second stop was the Otis Wallis house on Route 100, one of the oldest homes in Waitsfield (1797). The last stop was the Gen. Benjamin Wait house of 1793 (moved to it's present site in early 1830's) and the Wait Cemetery. All were then welcome to refreshments in the Wait Carriage barn and to see what the Historical Society has accomplished in creating a useful Community space, such as our gathering.

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SEPTEMBER, 2012: "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD & THE SECRET QUILT CODES", a program presented by our Historical Society to display the beautiful quilt made by the local Mad Quilters Quilting Guild, (including one of our members). This took place at the elementary school in the gym where we had plenty of room for hanging the quilt and for the girls to discuss each block they made. Other items depicting Civil War Soldier Cot Quilts and miscellaneous items of that era made by the quilters were also on display. At the end of the program, the originater of the Quilting Guild, Lisa Therian, announced the quilt was being donated to our Historical Society. A wonderful surprise to us. A few months later, we were asked to present the show in our Museum to the seniors from Evergreen Senior Center in town.

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AUGUST 12, 2012:  "SONGS FROM THE VERMONT CIVIL WAR SONGBOOK" plus "ANTIQUES ON THE GREEN"

A program sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council of Linda Radtke singing Civil War songs and dressed in period costume with a musician accompaning her. This was held in the Wait Carriage barn and to a full house crowd. There was also an offering of refreshments on the porch of the Wait House. Ruth Pestle manned our Guest Book as people entered the program.

Besides the program, we decided to include a fund raiser by having antique dealers outside on the Green to make it a full day. There were six dealers set up along the firehouse driveway with their wide range of great antiques. We could not have asked for better weather and the dealers hoped to do this again!

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AUGUST 13, 2011:  "WAITSFIELD OLD HOME DAY" A fun day that used to be enjoyed annually back in the day! In the Carriage Barn was "The Old Country Fiddler", Charles Ross Taggart (portrayed by Adam Boyce), supported by the Vermont Humanities Council (the barn reached its capacity of onlookers). On the "Green" we presented a Chinese Auction supported by donations from local businesses. We also had Old Time Games for the young and young-at-heart. We even had free ice cream on the Wait House porch, donated by Ben & Jerrys. A day many enjoyed.

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August 15, 2010: "CARRIAGE BARN SOCIAL" The Historical Society received approval from the Selectboard in 2007 to work on cleaning up the Wait barns to make them available for the community  to have displays, programs and meetings. By 2010, we had managed to clean out the Carriage barn and needed to have a fund raiser to help continue the repair work. We thought having the community see we were serious to move forward with the next steps, we invited folks to a "Wine & Cheese Party" on a Sunday afternoon to show what we had accomplished. The tables were spread with appetizers, desserts and of course wine and punch. We had a guitarist playing and singing to entertain all. We were pleased to see so many people interested in the progress we made in the barn. 

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