Our mission is to actively preserve and strengthen community by promoting the basic foundations of our small town way of life.

Our vision: Farmington is a strong community where organizations and neighbors are connected and work cooperatively to preserve our small town way of life for future generations to enjoy.

Description:
Historic buildings, safe places for children and the elderly, farmland, wildlife habitat, traditional village centers, and the interdependent relationships supported by these elements are rapidly disappearing from modern life. Where they do survive, these features continue to create meaningful connections and interactions between people - what we have come to call "community". When we pause to consider it, we often discover that these are the very characteristics that we tend to value most about our town. These are foundations upon which our lives as a community are built - without them, ours lives would be less.

Think of rock candy - we stir sugar into warm water. Into the water we place strings. Along the string, the individual crystals connect to form larger crystals. The Guild believes that there are elements of our community that are just like the string. Without them, the separate crystals would remain separate. But with the string, the crystals can connect, and they will rely upon one another to form something that is sweeter and finer than they can be separately. We don't think of the string when we think of the candy, but without the string, the candy can't happen.

Most people are sensitive to the meaningful connection to our history and our sense of place that is provided by the working landscape of farms and businesses, by classic, older buildings and by our traditional institutions and events. What is not immediately obvious is the value of these elements as links between the survival of our small-town culture and the future economic and social vitality of our community. To the Guild, this is the rock-candy string.

Other towns in the state have discovered that without adequate support for the "string", and without education about alternatives, we will witness the continued destruction of important community features. If the experience of other communities is any measure, we can count on our string being replaced by modern, out-of-scale architecture and by policies and habits that do not support values long held by locals. Long-time residents have only to think back a couple of decades to remember some of the lost features of our town that we loved.

The Guild was formed by local residents who recognize that comprehensive planning, protection and development strategies are needed in small towns. Through education, events, and community action, our goal is to clearly identify the rock-candy string in our town; to see that these important features are not forgotten in planning for change, and to raise funds to protect them.

The founding members of the Community Preservation Guild saw the need for a focused, energetic, project oriented group to further these goals. We invite you to join.

History:
The Farmington Community Preservation Guild was formed in 1999 by a group of Farmington residents who understood the interdependent relationship between the various community “building blocks” that residents often describe when they talk about what they value most about Farmington. These building blocks include Historic buildings, safe places for children and the elderly, engaged civic groups, farmland, wildlife habitat, a traditional village center and a town that is small enough that others know at least your face if not your name. They recognized that without attention, these very foundations upon which our community is built are at risk of deterioration.

The group’s first action project, the purchase and renovation of the old Farmington Firehouse was designed to build upon the interdependent nature of these community foundations. The goals of the project were to bring community members and groups together to preserve a historic building, save the town’s last antique fire trucks from being sold and to document the story of our town’s volunteer firefighters, one of the community’s longest-operating civic groups. The Guild has since begun to use the tools of collaboration building and cooperative problem-solving to address other community needs as well.

Contact person: Cyndi Paulin, Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

Oddfellow's Block, 453 Main Street, PO Box 71 Farmington, NH 03835 (See a map)

Directions:

Follow NH Route 153 or NH Route 75 into the center of Farmington. At the intersection of NH Route 153 (Main Street) and Central Street, is the Square. The Oddfellow's block is on the square and clearly marked.. . . (more)   Nearest Bus Stop: Coast Bus, downtown Farmington, 0 minute walk

Miscellaneous Information

Type of organization
	Nonprofit 501(c)3
Is your organization a Health and Human Service agency?
	No