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We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Hatch Mill Restoration & Preservation Group, Inc. created to restore Marshfield's Hatch Mill into a working educational site. We are looking for volunteers of many talents including those with carpenter / craftsman skills, those with office skills including computer and auto cad competence and those with generous, big hearts to donate time, food and money to this exciting effort. Currently, we ask all curious and well-wishing visitors to refrain from visiting the site. It is not secure and we wish to be courteous to our neighbors. If you wish to volunteer, please send us an email telling us how you would like to participate. We will keep you informed and notify you when we can take advantage of your offer. Thanks to the following families for there contributions: |
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 Hatch-ing a Plan to Restore the Old Mill
GateHouse Media Tues May 01, 2007, 04:33 PM EDT Marshfield - The Hatch Mill, the only surviving mill left over from the days when 24 mills operated on the South River, will be restored using Community Preservation Act funding, despite calls for a feasibility study before dedicating town money to the project, A split vote by the Advisory Board, with half of its members not convinced that the project is even viable, did not dissuade voters like Main Street resident Jack Braithwaite, who enthusiastically endorsed approving $120,250 to restore the Hatch Mill and turn it into an operating museum at Town Meeting Monday night. “Who owns the past?” Braithwaite said. “Who owns local history? You do!” Braithwaite said the town should support efforts to restore one of the few water-driven sawmills still operable in New England, one that may be the oldest original sawmill in eastern Massachusetts, for educational purposes. “It promises to be the only mill like it in New England,” he said. Roy Kirby, president of the Hatch Mill Restoration and Preservation Group, brought an up-and-down saw with him to the front of Town Meeting to make his case for the town to contribute toward the $1 million estimated cost of the project. However, Advisory Board chairman Keith Polansky said he’s concerned that the project that the project won’t even get past the approval process and doesn't’t want to commit money to the project without the results of a feasibility study that board members said would about $15,000. “We’re in favor of the project,” he said. “We’re just concerned about permitting.” Advisory Board member Paul Sullivan, on the other hand, said the historical status of the mill and Kirby’s proven ability to see a project through to the end are reasons he supports the project without a study. “We don’t see the need to hold him up,” he said. Cornwell Hill resident Barry Cornwall said he served on the Marshfield Conservation Commission years ago when another proposal to restore the Hatch Mill was before his board and was denied. “It was the worst decision we ever made,” he said. The Hatch Mill project wasn't’t the only one of the seven community preservation funding requests approved Monday that proved to be contentious. Community Preservation Committee chairman Ed McPherson said approximately $5.4 million has been spent on 29 projects since voters passed the CPA in 2001. This year, there is approximately $2 million in the fund, and the approved projects and additional administrative fees total approximately $725,000. Voters approved $65,000 for the continued funding of a housing coordinator and technical consultant and $219,873 for expenses related to the conversion of existing market rate housing to affordable housing, but not until after hearing criticism of these components of the town’s housing plan. Central Street resident Steve Lynch said the people of Marshfield have been generous with their funding of the housing plan and have gotten no return on their investment. “They have not produced, and it’s time to cut them off,” he said. Robert Carr, chairman of the Marshfield Housing Partnership, opened the discussion about the housing coordinator’s position with a list of accomplishments and demonstrated efforts to increase the town’s affordable housing inventory. The addition of 18 units to the town’s housing inventory was one of his examples. Voters also approved four other projects. Members of the Ventress Building Committee could not give voters an answer to the question of how much it would cost to rehabilitate the former library/ high school/town hall/police station at 76 South River St., but voters approved $40,000 to hire a project manager and historical architect, anyway. Town Administrator and committee member John Clifford said the project manager and architect would help determine the feasibility and projected cost. “The primary goal is to get reliable cost estimates,” he said. Voters quickly approved $2,400 for the first phase of a trail mapping project proposed by the town’s Trails and Ways Committee; $121,370 for the second phase of the Winslow House rehabilitation project and $180,514 for the Marcia Thomas House museum project. Funds for Community Preservation Act projects are provided by a 3 percent surcharge on residents’ tax bills. At least 10 percent of all revenues must be devoted to historic preservation, open space and community housing. Town Meeting continued Tuesday night after the Mariner deadline, and, if needed, will resume May 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Marshfield High School gymnasium. |
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| The Hatch Mill, built in 1759, is the last remaining water-powered saw mill on the North River. It is a piece of the living history for Marshfield, towns of the South Shore, New England, and America. Today, the North River is filled with recreation boats, but in the 17th and 18th century it was bustling with the industry of boat building and related trades. The North River is the "river that launched a thousand ships." The Columbia was launched on the North River and sailed to the Pacific Northwest under Captain Robert Gray. In 1792, Captain Gray discovered the Columbia River and named it after the ship. In 1790, it became the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. Today, only plaques remain of the many shipyards that once build the ships that sailed to open the great American west. The wood used by these shipyards was local timer sawn by the many saw mills on both sides of the North River. The Hatch Mill, a water-powered up-and-down sash saw mill, still stands beside its mill pond and represents this glorious New England and American History There are people all around the country whose roots go back to this history. I know because I live in a house that also has a long history, the Cornet Stetson House, built in 1690 and located directly across the North River from a home built by Walter Hatch in 1647, before the time of the Hatch Mill, as depicted in Sarah Messer's book The Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House. The Stetson and Hatch kindred is huge, and their roots go back to both homes along the North River. Cornet Stetson built one of the earliest sash saw mills in America, and many of the boards in our home have the up-and-down saw marks which are specific to that type of saw mill and time. Boards that do not have these marks are replacement boards from a later time. The history of the building of this early American home can be read through the saw marks on the boards. The significance of early saw mills, such as the Hatch Mill, to the building and growth of America is not fully understood or appreciated. Imagine if we did not have easy access to lumber. Home Depot, Lowe's, the many local lumber yards and saw mills such as Copeland Brothers and Taylor Lumber in Marshfield and the hundreds of homes being built on the South Shore are an everyday testament to the significance of the history of the Hatch Mill saw mill. It is important to understand our history. We stand on the shoulders of those before us. History helps us to understand who we are, and where we live. It is especially significant to experience history, to be able to touch and see and feel history. Living in a 300 year old home, I experience history every time I walk through my house. I feel generations before me who lived and worked in this same space. I can envisage someone's hands using tools to make the structure. I can sense the smell of food cooking in the large open fireplace. For 300 years, generations of families ate, slept and worked in the place where I now eat, sleep and work. My home is a living history. The Hatch Mill is also living history. It represents all the stories of the many mills that once lined the NOrth River and all the jobs and people that worked in those mills. Once a building is gone, that living history is lost forever. We must save the Hatch Mill for the future. It is our responsibility to our past. When it is restored it will be a place of living history as well as an educational center and museum for the preservation and teaching of traditional technologies and trades such as timber framing, boat building, and furniture making. -Laura and Rick Brown Co-founders of Handhouse Studio, Norwell, MA |
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| For More Information, you may contact Roy Kirby at 781-834-9647 or 781-760-5749 |
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 Betsy Hines Realtors |
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