History uncovered in Nahant

NAHANT – Time – a half century, to be exact – proved no match for a reproduction of the town’s official seal that survived obscurity only to be returned into the grateful hands of Clerk Peggy Barile and her colleagues.The painted image of Poquanum and Thomas Dexter exchanging the spit of land off Lynn for a suit of clothes covers a dirty and faded canvas stapled to a board frame. It needs cleaning and restoration, but – for now – Barile said the seal resides in its most fitting location – inside Town Hall.”My next thought is to have someone evaluate its condition,” she said.Barile credits the New Nahant Land Company, owners of the Nahant Country Club on Nahant Road, with recovering the seal and returning it to the town. She got a call from a company member last Friday reporting that the seal had been discovered while the basement under the club’s ballroom stage was being cleaned.”I’m overjoyed the company saved it,” she said.Barile said the seal isn’t simply a stylized image of the town’s founding that adorns official documents. It is a symbol that, as clerk, she is responsible for preserving, she said. A large image of the seal hangs on the Town Hall stage, and she wants to assure the recovered seal, once it is restored, “has a prominent spot.”Local historian Calantha Sears traced the seal to the town’s 1953 centennial banquet, an outdoor affair held at the country club that she said she attended. She tracked down a photograph of the celebration clearly showing the seal on display behind ranks of diners.”I think it was made for that event,” she said.Sears said the seal was probably paraded around town on a float as part of the centennial celebration. No identifying names are written or painted on the seal’s wood backing, but Sears said the artist carefully rendered images of the town’s historical figures and a fishing ship on the canvas.