The town powder house. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Harvard is one of the fortunate small New England towns that have a well-preserved old powder house. As of this fall, Harvard’s powder house is sporting a handsome new roof, thanks to the town’s approval last spring of Community Preservation Act funds for that purpose. The Historical Commission applied for the grant, and board member Doug Coots, an architect by profession, did the actual planning and carpentry work. Preserving and beautifying the powder house has a long tradition in town.

November 2, 1812, the second article on the Town Warrant asked, “To see if the town will erect a house to contain their military stores …” The town passed the article and it was left to the selectmen to “be a committee to see that said house is built.” The committee decided that the building was to be sited “on the rocky hill west of the horse sheds on the Common” and to be built to standard specifications for the time: small, square, hip-roofed, built of brick with a heavy oak door and no windows, set on a solid rock foundation. The February report of the selectmen shows payment of $87 to Phileimon Priest.

Before the erection of a separate building, ammunition had been stored in the roof of the meetinghouse. According to a statute of 1745, each town in the commonwealth was required to buy and store a stock of ammunition. At a town meeting of Harvard, it was “Voted that ye town stock be kept to the meeting house.” Lest this be misconstrued to allow cattle, pigs, and sheep to roam freely through the town building, someone added carets to amend this declaration to read: “…that ye Town stock of Ammunition be kept in the loft of the meeting house.” The meetinghouse was deemed a safe and appropriate storehouse for gunpowder, as it was dry, centrally located, and easy of access. Risk of fire was minimal, as the meetinghouses of those days were never heated. At the start of the Revolution the required amount of ammunition was large enough to warrant a separate building to store it. However, in 1775, the town turned down an article to build a powder house and voted to leave it to the selectmen to find a place to keep the supply of ammunition. There are no records of the site, or sites, to which the selectmen re-located the ammunition, and, fortunately, no records of disastrous consequences to their temporary quarters. By 1812, the uncertainty of war and the greatly increased bulk of ammunitions persuaded the town to approve the building of a powder house.

For over a hundred years, the brick building stood hidden by the horse sheds and overgrown vegetation. In April 1914, a group of 35 citizens formed an organization, a society to be known as “The Powder House Association of Harvard, Massachusetts” and declared that they “…do hereby affix our signatures and pledge our interest in repairing and preserving the old Powder House.” The signers were prominent townspeople, such as Gale, Dickson, Whitney, Bigelow, and Pollard, each of whom pledged one dollar. Clara Endicott Sears was the single contributor who paid five.

A boot scraper at the powder house.

The removal of a row of horse sheds to the west of Town Hall brought the small brick building to light. Other citizens joined the original Powder House Association in 1932, and they replaced the old door with one designed by Bruce Elwell at the request of the Woman’s Club. He used planks from the old Whitney home in Stow, which was formerly owned by a Harvard man. The door was made to look older by studding it with square head nails and using old heavy strap hinges. The door cost $40. In 1948 the building received a new roof. Over the years, efforts by the Garden Club kept the landscape cleared and planted.

Continuing in this tradition of citizen stewardship for the powder house, in spring 2006 the Historical Commission sought funds to once again preserve the building. The town approved $6,400 for a new roof. Thanks to the expertise and frugality of Doug Coots, the roof cost considerably less than this amount. It was first thought that the entire roof frame would need to be replaced. Coots determined, with the corroboration of an engineer, that the existing roof frame would hold, and that the roof just needed reshingling. He removed the old asphalt shingle roof from the ’40s and installed new sheathing and new sawn western red cedar shingles. Light in color now, the wood will weather to a silvery grey. Coots believes that the original roof was probably eastern white cedar, hand split. Modern methods of roofing are cost-efficient, while giving an old look to historical buildings. With some of the money saved on the roof, Coots plans to do more work at the powder house in the spring. He will replace the threshold (last repaired in 1932), and repair the door and eave trims. Carpentry work is not new to Coots, who owned a contracting business in the ’70s before becoming an architect.

Doug Coots stresses that the Historical Commission is interested in more than preservation: it is committed to finding new uses for old buildings. The reason buildings fall into disrepair is that there is no use for them. The Commission does not want to create “museum pieces,” but rather create new functions for these old buildings once so vital to the life of Harvard.

Visit the powder house, admire its handsome new roof, revel in the financial “bargain” Doug Coots gave to the town, admire the plaque placed jointly by the Garden Club and the Historical Society in 1964. And while you’re there, think what this stolid, proud little building could be used for in these modern times.

Historical information is from the archives of the Harvard Historical Society.