Thursday, March 23, 2000 Older Editions

History comes to life

By Taylor Armerding

The tools are a bit dusty. The odor is a bit musty. But step inside the Gray Blacksmith Shop, a small, white clapboard structure just off Salem Street on the old Robert Gray Farm near the Harold Parker State Forest, and you could almost be convinced that the smithy just took a break for lunch, and will be back in an hour.

Local residents should get a chance to experience that impression even more intensely later this year, after the blacksmith shop, along with the nearby Taft Weaving Studio, are moved to the Andover Historical Society property at 97 Main St. and restored to what the society hopes will be close to their original condition.

The society, long a repository of some of the most significant treasures of Andover's past, is adding what Executive Director Barbara Thibault says are two of its most significant acquisitions to that collection this year.

Indeed, the two structures will be the first "out-buildings" at the site besides the barn, and are part of a move by the society to expand its educational programs. The Main Street property, the Amos Blanchard house and barn, also includes a library and research center.

The two buildings are a bequest from Emily Walton Taft, a long-time Andover resident and ardent conservationist who died in 1997.

"Mrs. Taft was very concerned that her things be given to people who would appreciate and care for them as she had during her lifetime," Thibault says. "She felt that the society was the perfect museum to receive these buildings, because it could fulfill her wishes that the buildings be maintained and preserved, as well as used for educational and interpretative programs for future generations.

Mrs. Taft was the widow of the Rev. Frederick Taft, who died in 1983. They purchased the Gray Farm in 1967 from his family, after Rev. Taft retired from the ministry. The Taft family had first purchased the property in 1932 from the Gray family.

Thibault says the two became interested in the history of the farm. "And Rev. Taft was a tool collector," Thibault says, "so he added to that (the blacksmith shop) when they acquired the property."

The interior of the building, including the tools, is remarkably well preserved, considering that the shop was last active in the 18th century, according to Thibault. Besides dozens of tools that line the walls, the anvil is in the center of the room, and even the bellows that stoked the coals is in place.

Mrs. Taft, who was interested in weaving, became more involved when the family moved to the Gray Farm and she had the use of the weaving studio. She was a member of the Weaver's Guild of Boston.

Abigail O'Hara, a member of the society's board of directors and chairman of the "Taft project," says the move is planned in June, but the date is a bit uncertain, since the structures will have to be moved through the Phillips Academy campus, and the tentative date is during graduation weekend.

"I don't want to promise a great spectacle," she says, "because it is possible that we may not be able to move the buildings intact.."

It will be done in one day, she says, but the preparation for it will take more than a week. The cost to move it, she says, will be at least $30,000.

The restoration of the buildings will be done as quickly as possible, she says, using only carpenters who specialize in restoration, or those being trained in that skill. "But we need more money to finish the project, so when we get done depends on when we can raise the money," she says.

The goal, she says, is to restore both buildings to function much as they did in the 18th and 19th century. O'Hara says she hopes tourists and school children will be able to observe a blacksmith in action.

"I want them all to be able to leave with a hand-made nail," she says.

The society's growth campaign also includes a capital campaign to fund expansion of the museum and research center, new educational programs, renovations to make it handicapped accessible and offering the facility for community functions, receptions and meetings.