The Garcelon House was purchased in 2002 (its 200th birthday) in order to preserve the memory of local leaders and inspire future leaders to continue their traditions of cooperation, civic pride and self reliance. 

The first stewards of TGH began weekly meetings in 1999 to create opportunities for local folks to recall and recreate the rural traditions that promote sustainable lifestyles. In 2004, MOFGA became our fiscal agent for agricultural endeavors and sponsored a Journey Steward in the summer of 2005, just after we formed a formal board of directors and submitted our application for 501c3 non-profit status.  In 2006, Unity barn raisers became our fiscal agent for the stewardship involved in building our infrastructure and developing cooperative systems of stewardship.

In the last 5 years, TGH stewards have involved themselves in establishing and reclaiming garden beds, tapping maple trees, establishing  systems for boiling down syrup, renovating the historic homestead, dismantling, moving*-then reconstructing Billy Garcelon’s house to become a bunkhouse for Waldo Walkabouts’ recreators and building a carding mill for processing local fibers.  They also began creating a lending library, a local newsletter, archiving digital images of historic documents, photographs and artifacts,  shooting and archiving video footage of community events, parades and ceremonies.  TGH stewards have also hosted community meals, open houses, Yankee Swaps, walkabouts and a community garden plot where they’ve grown foods and flowers for outreach enterprises.

We currently operate with the labor of 5 volunteer stewards.  The summer of 2007 began our youth stewardship program with 3 local youths assisting 2 sustaining stewards** in cultivating and preserving fruits and vegetables for our eventual potlucks, fundraisers and community events. 

Our current call for TGH staff stewards and independently contracted stewards (in cooperation with UBR) is an exciting new chapter in our continual evolution in becoming a resource for those who would keep memories and pursuits of local leadership alive and growing sustaining rural traditions that might nourish our community for generations to come.

For more information about what we’ve been up to, see our archived copies of the “FOOTPRINTS” newsletter, or stop in for a visit!

* (from a site nearby now called “Gaffer’s Glory” farm, but still (and forever) known as Billy Garcelon’s)

**sustaining stewards are volunteer stewards who’ve been involved at TGH for over 5 years.