State Approveth New Metal Roof for
Ye Old Meeting House

Dateline: Nov. 16, 2019

Back on August 12th, Armand Verville, President of the Allenstown Historical Society, explained to the Board of Selectmen that the Old Allenstown Meeting House Committee had been maintaining the building for several years. He gave a short history that explained how it had changed ownership over the years.

      2010 Exterior Restoration Project

He then explained that, since 2012 when the state cut down the diseased red pine trees behind the building, a new winter wind pattern had been dumping more snow on the front roof, often requiring hand shoveling to reduced the snow load. The hand shovelling had thus reduced the lifetime of the asphalt shingles. In addition, it had been costing about $400 each time they had to hire a crew to remove snow from the roof.

Mr. Verville proposed installing a metal roof to be funded by the OAMH Committee. The State Division of Historic Resources initially wouldn't allow the vertical panel style of metal roofing because they were not historic enough and because the State had a vested interest in the building. Their preferred "shingle style" metal roof would have cost about $36,800 compared to the vertical panel style which would have cost about $6,000. Mr. Verville planned to continue negotiating with the State.

The continued negotiations paid off. The State eventually came around to the type of metal roofing that the OAMH Committee could afford. When it came to the color of the roofing, both Mr. Verville and the State agreed on a charcoal color as the most suitable choice.

After obtaining estimates from several roofing vendors, Mr. Verville went with a quote of $9500.00 from Mihachik Builders of Epsom, which included removal and disposal of the old shingles.

On November 15th, the roofers arrived bright and early and began stripping the old shingles from the rear roof. For the safety of the workers, you can see that they were all wearing safety harnesses with ropes fastened to safety anchors near the peak.

By midday, the rear side had a new metal roof.

By mid afternoon, most of the 21-foot long panels had been fastened to the front side.

The final task was to install the ridge caps and then clean up the grounds and pack up the equipment.

Before sunset, the entire job was done. Upon closer inspection you could not see any pieces of old shingles or roofing nails on the ground.

On the following morning, the sun rose upon the shiny new roof. Mr. Verville was very impressed with the work done and greatly relieved knowing that this roof would be good for about 50 years and there would be no more need to hire people to shovel snow from the roof.

Important Note from Armand Verville: The Old Allenstown Meeting House Committee was established by the Town to oversee the OAMH and report to the BOS on the status of the Meeting House. This Committee has no funding, it is simply a volunteer group to keep a watchful eye on the property. The Allenstown NH Historical Society has provided the funding for the rehabilitation of the building through fund raisers and grants. No tax dollars have been used since March 2004.

What You Can Do

The next time you are on Deerfield Rd., stop and look at the Old Meeting House. If you happen to meet Mr. Verville around town, give him a big Thank You for this major effort to preserve this historic site.