If you drive frequently along Route 156 through Hamburg Cove, you may have noticed some unusual equipment in the driveway of the Public Hall recently: a large dumpster and a temporary storage unit parked in front of our Undercroft garage doors. What has been going on?

Long-time member and valued volunteer Bill Denow had noticed some cracks and the start of some slight bowing of the concrete block walls of the Hall’s foundation. These walls were constructed in 1952, when the basement was created for housing the Town’s fire trucks, and the Hall was used as the firehouse, until the current modern Hamburg safety complex was built for them in 1985. Upon hearing Bill’s news and inspecting the walls, the LPH Board of Directors hired consulting engineers who recommended reinforcement with concrete piers to help support and stabilize the walls. This necessitated clearing out the old Archives room and moving everything into temporary storage so the construction work could be completed. The structural work is now finished, and we are working on painting surfaces while the rooms are cleared.

This is a timely example of how we put your investments in the Public Hall to work, maintaining and upgrading systems in the building originally constructed by local residents for the community in 1887. Thank you to the generous support of our members who make it possible for us to maintain our beloved Hall, and to the Town of Lyme for helping to preserve this building through the years.

In the photos below, you can see our Undercroft space at the Hall, with walls now supported by structural piers, as well as a close-up view of one supporting pier, helping to reinforce and support the Hall’s basement walls. The last photo shows a view of the Public Hall building before the 1952 firehouse conversion added the basement.