SWANZEY PRESERVATION SOCIETY
EXTERIOR
The GOLDEN ROD GRANGE No. 114 building is one of a group of structures that date from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and constitute the village of Swanzey Center. The building was constructed in 1915-1916 and, like most other structures in the vicinity, remains little changed.
The building measures about sixty feet in length and thirty-two feet in depth and stands on a foundation of brick and fieldstone footings. The interior of the building is characterized by simple detailing, much like that of many dwellings of the World War I era. Most woodwork is varnished pine, and the walls and ceiling are plaster. All windows in the building have two-over-two sashes with ogee-and-fillet muntin profiles and plain square-edged exterior casings. The Hall retains the integrity of location, design, setting, material, workmanship, feeling, and association.
EASTERN FACADE
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The facade of the first floor has a double central doorway in its center, concrete steps, and a glazed panel in each of the two doors. Two closely spaced windows are placed on each side of the doorway, providing light for a meeting and dining room within.
An additional window lights the kitchen at the southern end, and at the north end of the facade, in a corresponding position, is a single doorway with a glazed window that provides independent access to a stairhall leading to the second floor.
The second floor of the facade has five symmetrically-placed windows, with the central window, placed directly above the double doorway.
SOUTHERN SIDE
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At ground level, the south end has a central doorway on the first floor, providing access to a kitchen at this end of the building, with two flanking windows.
The second floor retains the casings and sills of three former windows located directly above the first-story openings; these windows have been boarded up and clapboarded. If opened, they would light the area behind the stage on the second floor.
NORTHERN SIDE
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The north end of the building has two windows on each floor, set toward the rear of the structure to provide wall space for a stairway within.
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These windows overlook the Potash Bowl and the entrance to the Mount Caesar Cemetery.
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This side also bears the Swanzey Preservation Society sign.
WESTERN SIDE
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Like the facade, the rear of the building has differing window placement on the two floors.
Five regularly-spaced windows on the first story are clustered toward the center of the building and light the meeting and dining room on this floor. At the northern end of this wall is a two-foot by eleven-foot privy projection with a shed roof; this projection has two small windows.
On the second story, four windows, spaced more widely apart than those below, echo the five windows on the facade of the building. A door on the rear elevation provides access to a steel exterior fire escape.
ALL PHOTOS: Alexander Minickiello
