The Member Zone  

HHA Members February Meeting Set for Thurs. 2/2

Our next meeting for members will be held at Allison & Lee Bechtol's historic Hardesty House, 530 North Wooster Avenue in Dover, Ohio.  Meeting time:  7:00PM   Join us!

For the benefit of members who were unable to attend, we held our annual meeting and banquet Thursday evening, January 5th, at the historic Reeves Museum Carriage House in Dover. It was a celebration of a successful year, which included our first annual Plant Sale,our second THAT Old House preservation and restoration workshop for do-it-yourselfers, and the 18^th annual Christmas Tour of Homes.

After a recap of the events of 2011 and announcements of upcoming events, officers were elected and the member of the year was announced.

Among events planned for this year are 1) our first Olde House Parts garage sale -- Saturday, March 31, featuring items from the former Olde House Parts architectural salvage shop;  2) our 2^nd Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 19, which will be staged as a joint effort in Zoar with the Zoar Community Association in continuing support of restoration of the historic Bimeler Museum;  3) the rebirth of the HHA Garden Tour on Saturday, July 14;  and 4) Our third, the 19^th Annual Christmas Tour of Homes on Sunday, December 9. 

The board of directors for 2012 will consist of:  President Tom Strickling of New Philadelphia, Vice-President Jeff Miller of Dover, Secretary Leslie Wilson of New Philadelphia, Treasurer Rod Kirkendall of Fairfield Township, Plaquing V.P. Jerry Stoughton of New Philadelphia, Public Relations V.P. Patti Strickling of New Philadelphia, Membership V.P. Tod Carper of Dover, Projects V.P. George Laurence of New Philadelphia, Social Activities V.P. Liz Hipp of New Philadelphia, and Program V.P. Marlena Allen of New Philadelphia.

Outgoing president Rod Kirkendall was named member of the year.

Pictured: Tod Carper (right) presents HHA’s Member of the Year award to outgoing president Rod Kirkendall.

In recapping what we did in 2011, we realize that we were too busy to notice how busy we were!

In January, we were still debriefing from the Christmas Tour, still trying to find enough volunteers to keep our architectural salvage shop open a total of 11 hours a week, and working to restore our website after a malicious attack by hackers. We were also in the planning stages for our second THAT Old House Workshop for do-it-yourselfers and our first Annual Plant Sale. And… our plaquing vice-president Jerry Stoughton was still trying to get Dante’s to turn in their application for a Historic Marker.

By the end of February, we shifted into second gear for THAT Old House and had articles published in 14 newspapers and public service announcements submitted to our two local radio stations, and, for the first time, a specific beneficiary was chosen prior to a fund-raising event. The Bimeler Museum would receive all profits from our first Annual Plant Sale.

By the end of March, 49 members had paid annual dues, and we were still trying to get enough volunteers to staff Olde House Parts. We donated a basket of goodies from Olde House Parts to Schoenbrunn Village for its annual benefit dinner and auction. With our workshop coming up in April, news releases were again submitted – to 64 newspapers, websites and radio stations. Our Plant Sale committee had a pot painting party. 100 clay pots, donated by Miller Studio, were hand-painted for sale at the plant sale. Jim Kopras at Sherwin Williams donated several cans of paint, the rest supplied by members. Eight of our members took time to tour the Canton Masonic Temple and dined together afterwards at Papa Bear’s in Canton.

In April, we staged our second THAT Old House workshop for do-it-yourselfers at the Tuscarawas County Center for the Arts, and conversation began about the campaign to save Zoar from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. With the plant sale less than a month away, there were hundreds of perennial and veggie plants to pot, as well as trees and herbs, and our promotion efforts were underway with listing on Ohio.com and Calendar of Ohio.   With our 1^st year special lease terms for Olde House Parts expiring at the end of April, directors were faced with a tough choice. Keep the store open and face potential losses of $500 a month or more – or shut it down. On Saturday, April 30^th, 9 of us gathered at the shop one last time – to move everything out.

In May, we staged our first Plant Sale -- at the home of George & Stacie Laurence in New Philadelphia. More than 1000 plants and 100 hand-painted clay pots were offered for sale. We also benefited from the sale of two greenhouses built by Tom Strickling’s class at Garaway High School. Leftover plants were donated for sale by the Zoar Community Association, and some of the hostas were planted around the Sewing House. This year’s plant sale will be held in Zoar.

In June, 20 of our members caravanned to tour historic Mt. Pleasant, Ohio.

In early July we had our annual picnic at Simmons Farm, and in mid-month we presented a donation of $2425 for use by the Ohio Historical Society’s in restoration of the Bimeler Museum. We were also talking about what to do with the inventory from Olde House Parts and whether to produce another preservation/restoration workshop in 2012.

Our August members’ meeting took the form of a private behind-the-scenes tour of Zoar, guided by site director Jennifer Donato, as a thank you for our donation. More than 20 members and guests participated and had dinner afterwards at the Firehouse Tavern.

At our board meeting in September, George Laurence informed us that our Heritage Home Association will be mentioned in the credits of the movie Old Fashioned, which was cast and shot in New Philadelphia. A number of our members volunteered their help and expertise in the production of the movie and numerous items from Olde House Parts were loaned as props.

In October, David Hipp led a group of 30 members and guests on a walking tour of the Zoar-Bolivar section of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath, and nearly everyone who attended had dinner together in Bolivar. Linda Shetler and Betsy Humphrey proposed another fund-raising event – a garden tour, which they will stage in July of this year. Late in October we began experiencing problems with our website again and it did not end well.

In November we moved most of our Olde House Parts inventory… again – this time from Jeff Miller’s barn in Dover to Carolyn and Hugh Berry’s garage on Fair Avenue in New Philadelphia, and we’re talking about having our first garage sale on March 31^st of this year. After an irreparable attack on our website, we were forced to fold up our tent and take it elsewhere, and so began the task of rebuilding tuschha.org with a new web hosting company.

With two weeks left before the 2011 rendition of our Christmas Tour of Homes, we were having problems with our new web hosting company. Email accounts were not working properly, and they were not very helpful with resolving those problems. We felt we had no choice but to move to another web hosting company AGAIN.  It was our 3rd year operating it since taking it over from the Denison Railroad Depot Museum.

In early December, another news release was sent out to 50 newspapers, three radio stations, and Ohio.com for our Christmas Tour of Homes. Posters and post cards were also distributed, and by the time the tour got under way on December 11, nearly 500 people paid to go on the tour. This was the 18^th year of the tour, and our 3rd year operating it since taking it over from the Denison Railroad Depot Museum.  Two days later, six of our members attended the Historical Society's winter banquet.

So, there you have it, our year in a nutshell.