Keeping community in changing times: the Thetford Center Community Association

In the village of Thetford Center stands a small white building, a former one-room schoolhouse. Now it serves the community as a gathering place for events, classes, and meetings. Its trajectory from school to community center began some time before 1900 when the residents of Thetford Center pooled their resources to build a one-room schoolhouse for the village. It was described by the Superintendent of Schools in February of 1900 as “a credit both to the town and to the men who had the building of it in charge” and “a model for a country school house.” The Thetford Center School operated till 1962 when all one-room schoolhouses in Thetford were consolidated into the Thetford Elementary School on Thetford Hill.

Jed Betts, whose family still lives across from the schoolhouse on Route 113, remembers that time. He attended First Grade in that schoolhouse back in 1960-1961. He recalls that the Thetford Center school served pupils from the village and from “as far away as Thetford Hill and the near end of Sawnee Bean Road.” At that time, Thetford students in grades one through eight were divided geographically between six small schoolhouses — Post Mills, Union Village, Stevens District, North Thetford, East Thetford, and Thetford Center. Going back even further, there were as many as 15 designated school districts in Thetford alone, each with its own building.

The Thetford Center School was unique among all the town schoolhouses in having flush toilets while the others made do with chemical or outhouse-style facilities. The school also housed a village lending library accessed via a door on the left side of the foyer. The library was staffed by community volunteers and open one or two evenings a week. Jed remembers that when he attended the Thetford Center School there were four grades being taught there. His first grade class had four students, and a total of 16 pupils attended the school. 

The move to bring all the schools together under one roof began when the State adopted requirements that barred teachers from teaching more than two grades. The town Health Officer also reported many health and safety issues at the one-room schoolhouses. But a community battle ensued over consolidating the schools into what is now the Thetford Elementary School on Thetford Hill. Jed's mother, Claradella Betts, was a school board member and believed in the value of education, while other parents feared loss of local control and argued the one-room schools were "good enough.” Strong feelings divided residents and broke up friendships. Jed recalls that for some, education may not have been a top priority. Most of the men in the generation above him had gone to work in the nearby Elizabeth copper mine, one of the largest and most productive copper mines in the US from 1809 to 1958. Thetford was otherwise a farming community with many small farms "of 10 to 12 cows” while a portion of residents supported themselves through the trades. Very few people commuted into the Hanover-Lebanon area. In fact, Route 113, the main road connecting Thetford to the Route 5 corridor, was just a dirt road until 1959.

Even before consolidation in 1962, the Thetford Center schoolhouse had provided a venue for community events. It was there that the residents erected the village Christmas tree. For Halloween Jed remembers that parents would put up curtains to make a "spook walk," and on Old Home Day, a big event in those days, the schoolhouse hosted a rummage sale. From time to time the women of the village, among them Claradella Betts and Lois Paige, organized bean suppers, hunters' suppers, and community dinners there, especially, Jed recalls, in the 50’s and 60's. Social life was centered on the village.

After the consolidation of schools, the building became the Thetford Center Community Association building. That didn't happen overnight. Although the building is generally assumed to have been the church hall of the Timothy Frost Church across the road, the church did not start holding Sunday coffee socials there until sometime in the 1970s. Even Sunday school was taught at the church, with a group of children in each corner, rather than at the ex-schoolhouse. In Jed’s childhood years, almost everyone went to church; it was the foundation of the village community. But  the church congregation dwindled in subsequent years and finally gave up the Timothy Frost building in 2019.

The women who organized community suppers at the schoolhouse would also rent out the building for events once it was no longer a school. Whatever money was left after expenses were covered was put towards maintenance and small scholarships for Thetford students. In fact, the Community Association became well organized with a president, a board of directors, and a membership.

This same period, roughly following school consolidation, was a time of transition in Thetford. It started in the 1950s when milk handlers in Massachusetts and Vermont began asking, and then mandating, that farmers use stainless steel bulk milk tanks. This made it easier for the handlers to collect milk and reduced their costs. However, it was the farmers who paid for the tanks. This caused many small farmers to quit the business; it was just too expensive. As small family farms closed, some sold their land to newcomers from out of state or to second-home owners. The makeup of the community was slowly changing.  

As a child, Jed remembers how all his classmates had relatives in town. It bothered him that he alone lacked relatives, as his father was from Chelsea and his mother from Barre. Thetford was a place where "everybody knew everyone else," and kids, though they ran unsupervised around the village all day, understood they had to behave. Village residents knew who they were and would report misbehavior to the parents. This same vigilance also kept kids safe. Cars were few, and there was so little traffic on Rt 113 that it was used as a playground after morning "rush hour." This was before the interstate was cut through Thetford in 1970-71. The interstates changed Vermont forever. Locally it meant that people with jobs in the economic center of Hanover/Lebanon increasingly moved to more rural towns like Thetford. 

The population in general was becoming more mobile. Unlike the long-time families who stayed put for generations, new people moved in, then moved away. This rapid turnover of real estate was a foreign concept to Jed, as was the rise in second home ownership. Another change was that kids began to own their own cars, no longer relying on the one family automobile. With more newcomers and more mobility, the village’s place at the center of social activity declined.

The Community Association kept going into the 2000s. A high point was retrofitting work in 2010 to reduce the building's energy footprint by sealing air leaks and adding insulation and an efficient furnace. The project was organized by Sustainable Energy Resource Group and harnessed 55 community volunteers. It expanded beyond its original energy goals to improve drainage around the foundation, bolster a sagging ceiling beam, and install a range hood and bathroom ventilation. 

In time, Claradella, and then Lois retired from running the Community Center, which had long since lost its membership. The granddaughters of Lois — Gail Egner and Jasmine Tremblay — and Martie Betts, daughter of Claradella, took over. One of their first projects was to redecorate the interior. 

However, between work and family, there wasn't always a lot of time to spare. In 2020 the COVID pandemic caused Community Center rentals to plummet. Nevertheless the board planned some outdoor community events, including a Harvest Fair and a Market Fair, in addition to a Silent Auction and Childrens' Art camps. In 2022, residents Nicky Corrao, Ben Bradley, and Effie Cummings joined the board, and Gail and Jasmine retired later that summer, followed by Effie. 

The new board, now including Joanne Sandberg-Cook and Andrew Cook, is working hard to increase revenues and revitalize the building. They obtained support from the Byrne Foundation to repaint the building's exterior and also replaced the big old gas range with two new, pilot-less ranges. A roof leak repair, electrical upgrades, and redecorating the kitchen are other improvements. Even a freak wiring problem that burned out the computer board of the new furnace was taken in stride. And there's another innovation — thanks to Jasmine and Gail, the Thetford Center Community Association now has a website to facilitate booking the building and help raise donations. 

The old schoolhouse continues to serve the community as a fully equipped rental space for meetings, parties, weddings, showers, art classes, and much more. It provides a free venue for memorial services, community gatherings such as potluck suppers and the Senior Coffee Klatch, plus town recreation classes like Elder Tai Chi. As Jed remarks, it is running "better than ever." However it does not receive any funding from the Town and relies solely on rental income and donations. This beloved facility stays afloat thanks to the hard work and good will of volunteers, in fact, it takes a community to run a Community Association building.