LYNNFIELD — After a one-year interruption due to the pandemic, the Country Store is gearing up for the 2021 holiday season.
The Historical Commission recently established a subcommittee to begin the laborious process of planning the event, and has just named Karen Nascembeni, Village Home and Garden Club of Lynnfield’s Karen Hathaway and commission member John Michalski to the committee. Nascembeni was appointed chair.
“The store has always been a huge labor of love for my family,” said Nascembeni. “It’s so important to maintain the Country Store tradition that has been so important to the town all these years.
“That’s the most important thing,” she added. “It is quintessential Americana that walks people back to when things were simpler. It’s just a wonderful gift to the town.”
Historical Commission Chair Kirk Mansfield said he has recently received many calls asking about the Country Store, which was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
“They’re calling the commission in our role as guardians of the building (Old Meeting House), but we are not able to take this on ourselves,” Mansfield said at the commission’s August meeting. “This subcommittee will be able to take on the task, thereby making sure the profit goes back into the Meeting House.”
The Country Store has been the Meeting House’s signature event for nearly 60 years. The event allows visitors to travel back in time and enjoy some old-fashioned family fun, refreshments and beverages, while shopping for homemade holiday wreaths, decorations and other trinkets. Crowd favorites include a cheesemonger, homemade baked-ham-and-beans dinners complete with brown bread and, of course, a visit from Santa Claus.
Nasembeni’s family has poured its heart and soul into the store for years. Her mother-in-law, Edie Pope Richard, father-in-law, Earl Richard, and husband, Steve Richard, all played significant roles in organizing the store every year. Edie died in 2017, while Earl and Steve died from COVID-19 five days apart in 2020.
“There’s always been a core group of people who have worked so hard and kept the store running year after year,” Nascembeni said. “Steve goes way back when his parents were running it. He went from having his picture taken with Santa when he was 5 to (being) the one taking the photos … We loved our years working this together.”
Select Board Chair Dick Dalton said the commission has been making real progress on many of the initiatives it has recently undertaken.
“I am very pleased with what the Historical Commission has done under Kirk’s leadership and I am thrilled the commission is bringing back the Country Store,” Dalton said. “I am delighted with the choice of Karen to serve as chair. There isn’t anyone more qualified to serve in the role and I am sure the store will be the best one yet.”
“Not having the store last year was so disappointing,” said Mansfield. “It was especially sad considering that Edie Pope started the whole thing. She was amazing with the history of the town and, after she passed, Steve did a fantastic job keeping her traditions going.”
Nascembeni said she is determined to make this year’s store the best one yet.
“I know it will probably be one of the hardest things I will have had to do since losing Steve and Earl,” she said. “But I will do it out of respect and love for them and for Edie. It’s important to their legacy to bring it back like it’s never been done before, in that there will be so much love behind it.”
Not everyone at the meeting agreed with the commission’s decision.
“The Historical Society ran it for 56 years and I’m not sure the society is willing to give up the Country Store,” said Society Treasurer Bob Gillon. “I strongly object to the Historical Commission voting on this. The Society is the only one who can give it up. I totally object.
“The history of the Country Store belongs to the Historical Society. If you take away our fundraising, you will throw the Historical Society out of town. You don’t have the right to do this.”
Town Counsel Thomas Mullen disagreed, saying the commission is completely within its rights to use the Meeting House for the store.
“There is certainly nothing wrong with the Historical Commission using the Meeting House themselves if they choose not to give the event to an outside organization,” he said. “The Society is simply an outside organization.”
