| OCTOBER 6, 2007 -- The Greenfield Hill Grange was once one of the most powerful granges in the state.
But membership in the grange, built Sept. 24, 1897 on Hillside Road to promote the agenda of farmers, is at an all-time low, and the grange is now seeking to preserve its building in two ways.
The grange wants to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also wants to transfer ownership of its building to the Greenfield Hill Village Improvement Society, a neighborhood group, so repairs can be made.
"We're on the wane because the organization is really going kaput. There are not that many members left," John Hauser, the grange master, said in a recent interview.
The grange, which had several hundred active members in the 1950s, is now down to 14 members, and many do not attend monthly meetings, Hauser said.
If membership declines to the point where the grange can't fill its seven slots for officers, the grange likely will have to give its charter back to the Connecticut State Grange in Glastonbury, Hauser said. "No member would like to see it happen, but there's not that many people left It's a situation that's gotten worse, and we really can't take care of the building," Hauser said.
Tucker Chase, the grange's treasurer, said, "As a grange, we basically are ceasing to exist We're releasing the ownership, which is very significant."
The state Historic Preservation Board is scheduled on Thursday to review the grange's application to be on the National Register of Historic Places, and local grange members already voted "in principle" to give the building to the GHVIS, according to Hauser and Chase. John Jones, the GHVIS president, said Thursday that the neighborhood group hadn't taken ownership of the grange building because that still required approval from the Connecticut State Grange, which he didn't think would be a problem.
Calls to the Connecticut State Grange were not returned.
Jones said owning the grange building fits in with the GHVIS' mission statement, which is to preserve the rural character of Greenfield Hill. "It's a preservation piece," he said.
George Clark, the grange steward, said GHVIS holds its annual meetings in the grange and has been interested in owning the 1873 Hillside Road building for several years.
"Part of the agreement is we would continue what we do, but not retain ownership of the building," Chase said.
Clark said the GHVIS, which has 450 members, has enough people to increase activities in the grange building and ensure it does not fall into disrepair. "They have the bandwidth to really leverage the building and do something with it and fix it up," Clark said.
A new roof was put on the grange about five years ago, and the two-story structure, which includes a stage, dance hall, kitchen and false belfry, is structurally sound, Clark said.
The most pressing improvements needed include work on the grange's heating system and a septic tank behind the grange and adding a parking lot, Chase said.
But the grange, like any structure, will need repairs in the future, as time and the elements take their toll. "As far as keeping the building up, it's really going little by little," Hauser said.
Chase said transferring ownership of the grange to the GHVIS also was a good idea because the building "has been underutilized for many years."
"It's been very underutilized as a building, and I look forward to more activities and an improved agenda," Chase said.
Grange members would get first dibs on use of the building, in case they and another group want to hold activities in the structure at the same time. Local garden clubs also use the grange building, Clark said. But the original purpose of the grange, to promote the agenda of farmers, largely is lost in Fairfield and the grange now exists mostly as a community service organization, Hauser said.
But most grange members are elderly and unable to do much in that vein, Hauser added.
"Right now, they can't because people are pretty old and sick, but they used to help out with community functions, and a lot of them did have gardens," Hauser said. "Because of the age of the people we really don't do that much If we don't get any members, I don't see how it's going to keep functioning."
Members in the grange meet to talk about agriculture, which mostly means gardens and flowers, and recently held their 108th agricultural fair, which included a tag sale; flower and vegetable auction; and prizes for home-made baked goods, vegetables, fruits and flowers.
Grange members also are supposed to participate in functions of the Connecticut State Grange, which meets four times a year, and local grange, which meets on the third Sunday of every month. The seven stations in the Greenfield Hill Grange also must remain filled, Hauser said. "If not all are filled, technically, you should turn your charter back to the state, but that's the last thing the state wants," Hauser said.
When Hauser joined the Greenfield Hill Grange in the mid-1980s, there were 114 granges in the state. "The last I heard, there were 68 granges left, and a lot of them, if they have the building, have trouble taking care of the buildings," Hauser said.
Hauser blamed today's difficulty in recruiting new members to time demands that result from both men and women working.
Clark said he appreciated GHVIS' interest in owning the grange building to increase activities and ensure it remains in good shape. "It's an amazing space, and it's a beautiful piece of history in Greenfield Hill," Clark said. "The people up here appreciate this for what it is. It's a beautiful hall and a beautiful building."
Anyone who's interested in joining the Greenfield Hill Grange can call Hauser at 259-9821.
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