LYNNFIELD — Add the Meeting House to the ever-growing list of coronavirus casualties in town.
Lynnfield Historical Society Program Director Kirk P. Mansfield announced Wednesday on the Society’s Facebook page that the Meeting House will remain closed the rest of the year.
The statement said, “Though the country is slowly reopening, many businesses and organizations have been presented with restrictions and guidelines that have forced a re-examination on how to move forward. While we at the Lynnfield Historical Society are confident that we can meet these requirements, we are more concerned about your health and well-being. Therefore, we have decided to keep the Meeting House closed until the end of the year.”
The Meeting House has served as host of many community activities for more than 300 years. In the past it also served as a primary school for the center district and, for a time, as a fire station.
Its signature event for nearly 60 years has been the annual holiday Country Store, an event where visitors could travel back in time to enjoy some old-fashioned family fun, refreshments and beverages, while shopping for holiday wreath decorations and other trinkets.
“This closure will prevent us from hosting the annual Country Store, an event that means so much to the community,” the statement said.
“Not having the Store is so disappointing,” said Mansfield. “It’s an event that everyone looks forward to, and I just love the small-town country-store mentality you find every year. But things like the cheesemonger, the shared food, holiday wreaths and the cookies, all of that can’t be allowed, and you also have the small confines, so unless something changes, we just cannot have it.
“It’s especially sad this year, considering that Edie Pope (mother of Steven Richard and wife of Earl Richard, both of whom died from COVID-19) started the whole thing. She was amazing with the history of the town, and after she passed Steve did a fantastic job in keeping her traditions going.”
Mansfield said he does not know whether or not the Society might reverse its decision in the future.
“We won’t know anything until the state releases the guidelines,” said Mansfield, who is a sales manager and event planner with Back Bay Events Center in Boston. “Even in my business, everything is still up in the air, so we can’t plan anything until we have more from the state.”
Mansfield’s Facebook post said, “This unprecedented year has certainly presented everyone with so much chaos, uncertainty, and sadness, (but) make no mistake about it, we will be up and running again as soon as possible.”
The Old Meeting House, built in 1714, is the third oldest Puritan meeting house in continual use standing on its original green.
