Grants
Clara Sexton Memorial House
After being closed since early last year (2020) and completing a huge restoration project, the Billerica Historical Society welcomed visitors back on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, to the historic Clara Sexton Memorial House.
With funding from a Community Preservation Act grant of $100,000, the organization restored all the Concord Street house’s aging windows and repainted the exterior of the building, along with other repairs and restorations.
“It involved taking (the windows) all out and sending them to a company that restores antique windows and having them all reinstalled again,” said Society President John Bartlett. “It’s more expensive because you have to do it historically accurately.”
Each pane of glass in the 30 or so windows were removed, labeled and restored individually by Sergio Quiroa, of FPP Window Repair, Restoration and Weather Sealing.
On Saturday, members of the Historical Society dressed in historical costumes showed visitors around the home and its new displays. One group put together an apple pie in the house’s original 1723 kitchen, placing it in a Dutch oven outside and cooking it on hot bricks and coals. Others demonstrated candle-making techniques or made leather items. more…
Margaret Ingraham Musem of Billerica History
Several years ago, when the Billerica Historical Society transformed the Clara Sexton Memorial House on Concord Road into a representation of daily life throughout its 300-year history, they knew that space to display their many artifacts would be limited. But they also knew they had an attached barn, which was unheated and mostly unused, and the idea to create a barn museum was born.
On Sept. 24, the nonprofit group gathered to celebrate the house’s three centuries and to open the restored barn, naming it after the late Margaret Ingraham, Billerica town historian for many years who passed away in 2012. A retired teacher, Margaret was appointed town historian by the then-Board of Selectmen in 1992. In 1996, she was given the Distinguished Community Service Award by the same governing body.
“Margaret served as a human reference in the days before Google,” said Billerica Historical Society board member Richard Hawes. “She was a great inspiration to many in the town and kept our local history alive.”
The Margaret Ingraham Museum of Billerica History was made possible by Community Preservation Act funding and a grant from the state. The all-volunteer group spent many hours cleaning out 150 years of dirt from the barn. Now, it’s a bright and welcoming space with display cases for many pieces of history. more…
Dedication Pictures
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