Please Remember Readfield Union Meeting House when Planning Your Year-End Giving...

Readfield Union Meeing House c1950

This picture of Readfield Union Meeting House  was taken c1950 - notice the steeple and clock. Efforts are underway to preserve them now - along with the interior repairs and restorations to the invaluable trompe l'oiel artwork by Charles J. Schumacher, the stained glass and stenciled windows and more. This is a daunting task for a handful of volunteers. Community support has been and continues to be vital to this process - some have helped through hands on, others have given gifts in kind and last but not least we have gratefully received the much needed individual and business cash donations and grants from foundations. All are imperative to the success of preserving this national treasure so PLEASE remember Readfield Union Meeting House as you plan your end of year giving!

December 2012 Update

A happy holiday to everyone from the Board and Advisory Board of The Union Meeting House. We are buttoned up tight for the winter but before it got too cold workmen from Oakes & Parkhurst stained glass restorers came and took out the Nancy Hunton Atkinson memorial stained glass window. Over the past decades the bottom third had sagged badly and the entire sash was in danger of letting go. This would mean hundreds of pieces of broken glass on the ground and the loss of a beautiful window.

    This past summer Mrs. Donna Page, a former Readfield girl and a Hunton descendant, donated $1,000 to have the window taken out and completely restored. Between Oakes & Parkhurst, which will repair the stained glass, and Joseph Caputo of East Pittston, who will scrap, prime, repair and paint the wooden casing and sashes, the window should be back in place by springtime. Our thanks for Mrs. Page for her thoughtfulness.

   October was the Meeting House Board’s annual meeting. Elected to serve until October 2013 were: Marius B. Péladeau, president; Barbara Boenke, secretary; Donn Harriman, treasurer; and Florence Drake, Marianne and John Perry, Karen B. Peterson; Joan Wiebe and Milton R. Wright. On the Advisory Board are Dale Marie Potter Clark, Mary Jernigan, Brianne M. McNally and Evelyn A. Potter.

   The newsletter to all members and donors is in the mail. If anyone else wants a copy let us know at 685-4537. The UMH is honored that the branches of The Bank of Maine in Readfield and Winthrop made a kind donation to sponsor this newsletter.