The Royalston Historical Society will be holding a celebration on Saturday, Sept. 10, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, to officially unveil the restored cove ceiling at the Royalston Historical Society building. Work on the project began in the spring and was recently completed. “It came out beautiful,” according to Stephen Chase, vice president of the society.
Several discoveries were made when the cove ceiling was restored. “We did find various names and dates in the rafters when we took the second floor (drywall) ceiling down,” Chase said. A slide show will be held at the celebration highlighting a few historic discoveries of “what lies beneath” the ceiling from the decades when the building served the town as Old Schoolhouse #1.
It is unclear who built the cove ceiling, when it was built or why. “It’s a big mystery to solve,” Chase said. He explained that cove ceilings are usually expensive to build and rural schools usually didn’t have a lot of money. Research will continue on these questions. “We will probably go through old Town Meeting records to see if we can find more information about the ceiling. Right now, we do not have access to them, because those records are in storage because of the restoration.”
What is known is the schoolhouse was built in 1830. However, it is unclear if the building was built from scratch or was added on to another school that was already there. “That is not definitive but there are clues in the structure that there was another building that was expanded,” Chase said. The school over the years has gone through various redesigns, at one point with the building being split in half and 10 feet was added to the center, we assume to enlarge it,” Chase said.
The whole project cost approximately $45,000. “We always knew it (the cove ceiling structure) was there. We toyed around with the idea (of restoring it) for many years. One big (anonymous) donor stepped up with a large donation specifically for the ceiling; that was the impetus for the project.” A plaque will be presented to major donors of the project at the event.
Among the contractors who worked on the project were Stephen Chase Contracting of Royalston, D.P. Autio Co. of Littleton, Arthur Fotakis of Leominster, PJR Electrical of Winchendon, Castine Movers of Athol, and W.R. Collins Hardwood Flooring of Gardner. Society volunteers assisting with the project included, Pierre Humboldt, Maureen Blasko and Kathy Morris, Peter Kraniak, Stephen Chase and Jeff Wright.
Also on display at the event will be several recent society acquisitions including a receipt signed by John Hancock when he sold some land in Royalston.
The society is also working with a grant-funded Massachusetts Historical Commission archivist to conserve and evaluate their historical collection. The archivist is part of the Massachusetts Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) Roving Archivist Program, according to Maureen Blasco, treasurer for the historical society. As they unpack and refill the space under the new cove ceiling, work will be done to improve the digital inventory of the collection as well, Chase said. Refreshments will also be served at the event.