The Renovation and Transformation of the St. Joseph Church building in Bartlett, NH

Bartlett Historical Society Mission

 Our Mission is to “Preserve and protect all documents and items of historic value concerning the history of Bartlett, New Hampshire.”

 A Little Bit About Bartlett

Bartlett is a small, rural New England town with its origins officially dating back to 1790 when it was incorporated and named in honor of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, the first President of New Hampshire.  The true origin of the town dates even farther back, however.  At the end of the French and Indian Wars, acreage was granted to soldiers who distinguished themselves in battle.  The first land grants that eventually became a part of Bartlett were from Governor Benning Wentworth in October 1765 to Colonel Andrew McMillan, a two thousand acre plot and another three thousand acres to Captain William Stark.

Over the years, Bartlett has been a farming town, a logging town, a railroad town, and hospitality town.  This town’s history makes for a great story. 

Our work to preserve the history of the town is important because much can be learned from our heritage and passed on to future generations.

St. Joseph Church – A Brief History 

St. Joseph Church was built in 1890 under the guidance of Father J. N. Plante.  St. Joseph was the first and oldest Catholic Church in the Mount Washington Valley.  Over the years, it served the spiritual needs of Catholics, at first from many villages in the valley, and over time, just to the Villages of Bartlett. 

In 1999, the Diocese of Manchester consolidated several smaller churches into the parish of Our Lady of the Mountains in North Conway, thereby closing St. Joseph Church.  In that year, the Bartlett School District purchased the church building and turned it into a storage facility for the school district. 

In 2013, the school district announced a plan to demolish the building.  In response, a small group of Bartlett citizens arose asking that the building be saved. 

After much discussion, it was decided to lease the building to the Bartlett Historical Society so they could transform it into a historical museum.  A lease between the school district and historical society was signed in June 2016.  The building will be renovated and opened as

“The Bartlett Historical Society Museum.”

Transformation of a Church to a Museum 

The Bartlett Historical Society plans to renovate and transform the church building into: 

·         The headquarters for the historical society;

·         A public museum displaying the history of Bartlett;

·         A center for presentations on historic topics;

·         A research center for Bartlett’s past, and;

·         An archive for our collection of Bartlett artifacts. 

Today, our historical society has no headquarters, no museum, a borrowed presentation room, artifacts scattered across town and no facility for historic research. 

This building renovation and transformation will change a church to a museum; save an historic structure, and; allow the Bartlett Historical Society to preserve the past for future generations.