The Village of Ardentown is getting ready to celebrate its Centennial and the ACSM is working on an exhibition to mark the occasion. Several years ago, the Trustees of Ardentown loaned the Museum the book of original Ardentown leasehold records. The book was part of the exhibition Finding A Homes in the Ardens. The plan was to have the records digitized, so that the information would be available and the book, which is in poor condition, could be preserved in its original state. We are happy that our curator, Abby Harting, found a former colleague who was willing to take on this special project.
As the project has developed a number of interesting facts have been found. The book contains over 330 pages, most of which are actual leases or copies. Fortunately, the leases themselves were prepared on high quality paper, as they were glued to the cheap, newsprint type paper in the book. Included in the book is a three-page document titled “Assessment of Land Rents for 1924,” which is probably the oldest record of its kind for Ardentown. The earliest date is May 19, 1923 – 23 leases issued on that day. The last lease in the book was issued September 16, 1940, which was for Leasehold 263.
The leases have all been signed by the various trustees through the years, but two other names appear regularly. One is Elizabeth B. Ritter whose name was found on 26 pages. It would be interesting to learn more about her and her connections with the village. Not surprisingly, the other most commonly found name was Fiske Warren.
Warren was a single-taxer from Boston who was part of the financing of the purchase of the Hanby and Harvey farms when Ardentown was founded in 1922. Warren accepted a number of leaseholds as part of the financial arrangements. His name appears on 79 pages in the book. Warren would rent these and eventually many of those renter/residents acquired the leaseholds for themselves.
We look forward to celebrating the Ardentown Centennial and learning more from this valuable record of the early days of the village.
In preparation for the opening of our Ardentown Centennial Celebration Exhibition the museum will be temporarily closing on August 1st. so your last chance to see “Images from the Ardens: 1900-1960” will be Sunday July 31st from 1-3 pm.
