Notes From Tuesday’s Dover Historical Commission Meeting

The Dover Historical Commission met Tuesday night to discuss being represented in the Dover 175^th Anniversary Committee and to determine the historical significance of a Hodgson garage on Bretton Road.

The committee had by last night’s meeting to determine whether the Hodgson garage on Bretton Road was historically important. Doing so would allow them to delay demolition of the building for up to one year.

The plan is to give the garage to the Cemetary Commission in order for them move the building to the town cemetery, where they would use it to store equipment and give cemetery supervisor Lawrence “Rusty” Dauphinee a summer office.

It has been determined by Historical Commission member Paul Tedescho that because of the way the particular garage was built, the building is not a “true” Hodgson garage.

“My problem is that, yes it might have some historical value, but I am not as concerned with its historical value because it is not a Hodgson garage.”

What historical value the building may have comes from the fact that the building was once on the site of the Hodgson company factory, where the town garage sits today, before being moved to its current location.

The commission moved that the building was historically significant, in order for the Cemetery Commission to decide whether or not they even want the building.

Cemetery Commission member Jon Wolff brought up the fact that they, as a group, have not seen the inside of the building, and were concerned about whether or not the building had any kind of asbestos in it.

The Historical Commission decided that they would all go visit the garage to determine whether it should be preferentially preserved in order to prevent its demolition.

The commission also discussed at their meeting the importance of  having someone from the Historical Commission be a member of the Dover 175^th Anniversary Committee. Commission member Tedescho volunteered for the job and the Historical Commission members were all in favor.