The Strafford Historical Society
2026 Annual Meeting
3 p.m. —Sunday, September 20, 2026 — the Masonic Hall, South Strafford.
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News
Our 70th Annual Business Meeting takes place September 20, 2026.
Blake Spencer and his crew have completed extensive renovations of the Masonic Hall building henceforth to be known as the Strafford Historical Society and Community Center.
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Blog
Our frequent blog posts contain stories about the people, places, things, and events that shaped Strafford's past and present. There are posts about people like Jedediah Harris and his wife Judith, Samuel Pennock, Harlow Lent and Gile Kendall, places like Dublin Corner, historic things like horse-drawn snowplows, and events like the annual full moon skiing at Lion's rope tow on Harrington Hill.
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Restoration
Our new home is being restored! In September 2021, the Strafford Historical Society received a Vermont's Art Council Cultural Facilities grant for $18,040 to be used toward the installation of an energy-efficient heat pump system and was also awarded $51,520 in Tax Credits through the Agency of Commerce's Downtown & Village Center Program to be used toward roof repairs. The Northfield Savings Bank will purchase the Tax Credits.
The new home of the Strafford Historical Society, and future Community Center
Blake Spencer and his crew of talented carpenters have been very busy lately rectifying the structural issues of our new home. Take a look »
Please help us with its restoration.
A letter sent 27 years ago… finally answered
In 1998 Strafford Historian Gwenda Smith wrote a letter to Eilzabeth Markin of The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford Connecticut. Markin had published an article in the November 1976 issue of The Magazine Antiques on the early 19th century portrait painter Zedekiah Belknap.
Smith was writing in regards to the portraits of Jedediah Harris and his wife Judith Harris which hang in the Morrill Memorial Library. Smith felt they might well be among the over 200 hundred portraits done by Belknap.
Strafford’s stores
As two of Strafford‘s store buildings merit special mention this year —Coburns’ Store building having reached its 100th birthday in I985, and the old White Store in the upper village having been extensively restored —it seems fitting to present here a brief history of our main commercial structures.
The Elizabeth Mine: A New Life for a Vermont Superfund Site
Strafford’s Elizabeth Mine has undergone an extraordinary transformation—from one of the nation’s significant copper producers to an abandoned and contaminated industrial site, and ultimately to a reclaimed landscape and source of solar power.
In an article originally published in the Fall 2024 issue of Estuary, author John Buck traces the mine’s history, its environmental legacy, and the massive cleanup completed in 2022. The article also includes a historic photograph from the Strafford Historical Society’s collection.
Elizabeth Mine mining operations shed from Copperas Hill c. 1900.