After years of planning, Old White Meeting House restoration literally moves forward in South Hero

SOUTH HERO – After years of organizing and fundraising, the Old White Meeting House in South Hero was inched north on Monday afternoon, beginning a long-planned relocation required for the meeting hall’s anticipated restoration.

The building was only moved several feet by the end of Monday afternoon, with contractors expected to continue the move over the ensuing week. Already the building had been hiked above its foundation and had parts of its siding removed, signs of a now underway renovation long-planned by local officials.

According to South Hero officials, temporarily relocating the Old White Meeting House to the north of the building’s historic footprint was required for excavating and replacing the Old White Meeting House’s crumbling foundation, an essential step in the meeting hall’s ongoing restoration as a public gathering space and events venue.

Relocating the building and restoring its foundation had been among the first projects teased by local officials when they began discussing the Old White Meeting House’s restoration several years ago. Finally seeing that move happen after years of planning and fundraising was, according to local officials, both a relief and a reason for excitement.

“It’s freaking exciting,” remarked Sandy Gregg, a former planning commissioner working with the nonprofit organization fundraising to restore the historic meeting hall. “It’s on the move.”

For some in the South Hero community, the event was a historic moment comparable to the building’s initial construction in the early 1800s.

Throughout the afternoon, an audience of primarily local officials and historians hid in the nearby shade, celebrating when contractors finally tugged the Old White Meeting Hall to its north along the steel girders serving as makeshift rails. Photographers and reporters circled the building, stopping occasionally to meet with community leaders.

Teachers from the nearby Folsom Education and Community Center turned the event into a history and science lesson, gathering their students near the South Hero Bicentennial Museum across the street. Occasionally, the students heard from officials and other visitors about the significance of the meeting house’s restoration and physical plans for the building’s temporary move.

“We think that any time a building is preserved, it should be an event,” Dani Holm, a mathematics and science teacher at the Folsom Education and Community Center, told The Islander. “It’s cool for the kids to be connected with their community.”

“At their age, it’s important to be immersed in their hometown’s history,” agreed Megan Branon, a social studies teacher for the Folsom Education and Community Center’s third- and fourth-graders. “They learn to get out and be involved in their town more.”

For several years, the two teachers had partnered with the local historical society and the South Hero Bicentennial Museum to host history-themed walking tours for students in South Hero’s village. The Old White Meeting House had often been a stop during those tours, with presenters usually highlighting the building’s prior role as a schoolhouse.

Teresa Robinson, the president of the South Hero Bicentennial Museum and a retired educator who typically leads Branon and Holm’s students through South Hero’s village during their biennial walking tours, said it was important that students could witness the meeting house’s move earlier this week.

“You are living history, and right now, this is history happening,” Robinson said, referring to the Folsom Education and Community Center’s students. “When history is happening, you should be there.”

Originally built as a meeting hall and church in 1816, the Old White Meeting House has served in several roles over the past two centuries. According to local historians, the Old White Meeting House had been a meeting hall, church and school for much of its life. Eventually, the building was converted into a garage and fire station, as well as the longtime home for the popular thrift store Granny’s Attic.

Its two centuries of use have taken a toll on the Old White Meeting House, however, with town officials pointing primarily to its crumbling foundation and sagging structure that was particularly noticeable above the garage bays carved into the building’s eastern flank during its tenure as a municipal garage and fire station.

After several years of fundraising, South Hero officials formally contracted with Vermont Heavy Timber, a construction firm headquartered in Huntington specializing in historic restorations, to lead the Old White Meeting House’s restoration. The town had earmarked more than $1.2 million for the restoration, having raised enough funding through a onetime local allocation, state and federal grants, and donations.

For local officials championing the Old White Meeting House’s restoration, the building’s continued use would be a boon for a growing South Hero village.

Current plans for the Old White Meeting House would see the building’s structure stabilized and its first floor restored as an accessible events venue and gathering place. The building’s use would be connected to a new recreation park the town was developing nearby, one of several ongoing projects promising to reshape South Hero’s village over the coming years.

Subsequent phases were planned for restoring the Old White Meeting House’s second floor and adding a two-story extension with an elevator, kitchen and indoor restrooms.

Those later phases of the building’s restoration, according to South Hero officials, would ultimately depend on ongoing fundraising.

“It’s exciting that we’re making some real physical improvements and that it’s obvious the restoration is actually moving forward,” David Carter, the chair of the South Hero selectboard and the board’s liaison to the Old White Meeting House’s restoration, told The Islander. “We’ll have a whole new meeting house and a beautiful centerpiece for a historic village.”
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“I want to see that building serve her community for the next 200 years,” added Gregg, the former planning commissioner supporting the Old White Meeting House’s continued restoration. “She has the potential to really serve her community, and I want to see that happen.”

The first phase of the Old White Meeting House’s restoration was expected to continue through the year, with local officials planning a likely reopening for the meeting hall’s first floor in early 2027.