Some of the VHS tapes recently digitized included interviews with Elsie Sniffin, who lived in Beaver Meadow from 1959 until her death in 2008 and was a passionate historian of the Beaver Meadow community and collected historical material related to it. She served as a member of the Norwich Historical Society, the Norwich Women’s Club, and other organizations, and was awarded the State of Vermont’s Public Service Award. Here are two stories that Elsie Sniffin told about the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse in a 2003 interview. Kevin Hybels
Elsie Sniffin talks about Beaver Meadow’s population
Elsie Sniffin tells a story about Roy Blanchard’s shoes
The original Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse opened in 1791. The schoolhouse burned in 1921, and the current schoolhouse building opened in 1922, with running water installed sometime before 1935. Many students skied to school in the winter, and some lived as far as two-and-a-half miles away from the school.
The Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse closed in 1946, five years before Norwich’s last one room schoolhouse, in Pomponoosuc, closed in 1951. Today the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse is used for community events and is cared for by the Beaver Meadow School House Association. Community events such as meetings and games were also held at the building while it was still a school.
