TURNER — When two large replicas of Turner landmarks showed up at the shop door, students asked what they were supposed to do with them.
The bottom half of the Turner Centre Creamery was filled with rotten wood and the roof on the North Turner Toll Bridge was full of holes.
“We are going to rebuild them,” John Lipofsky, the shop teacher at Leavitt Area High School, told them.
Senior Cameron Chisholm fired up the skills he learned during his summer job laying floors, and senior Reeve Twitchell was quick to bring in the spray gun that he used to undercoat his truck.
“The kids bought into it hook, line and sinker,” Lipofsky said.
The wood replicas were built by Delbert Sennett in observance of Turner’s bicentennial celebration in 1986. The creamery and the bridge were towed through town during the bicentennial parade before being placed on the front lawn of the Town Office at 11 Turner Center Road.
The original creamery was built in 1882 and purchased milk from local farmers to manufacture cheese, butter and ice cream.
The North Turner Toll Bridge was built in 1839. A person on a horse was charged 6 cents to cross the Androscoggin River between North Turner and Leeds. A cow or mule could cross for 2 cents.
While the bridge was eventually lost to a flood in 1936 and the creamery burned in 1993, the replicas remained next to the Town Office for another 35 years after the parade until volunteers with the Turner Museum and Historical Association tried to find a better home for the weathered replicas.
“I try to put a purpose behind every project,” Lipofsky said as his students repaired the creamery replica in their woodworking class at Leavitt.
“This is great,” Twitchell said. “I’m not stuck at a desk all day.” Besides, he is not sure how or when, but Twitchell’s family is connected some way to the historical timeline of the creamery, the 17-year-old said. “My grandmother will be excited to see it back on the grass.”
Chisholm has taken the lead on the restoration project and has earned the title “project foreman,” Lipofsky said. Not only does Chisholm work on the outside of the creamery, but he is the only one small enough to climb inside. “Getting back out is a little tough,” he said.
Lipofsky said the restoration project has been full of “old school lessons” for his students. “Nothing is written down anywhere. No dimensions to go by, just broken pieces to take measurements from.”
“I tell them to take their time,” he said. “This is not NASCAR. You’re not trying to qualify for the pole position.”
The students will be recognized for their work April 9 during the town meeting. The cover of the annual town report will feature pictures of the creamery, the toll bridge and pictures of the replicas the students have been working on.
“Every year the town report is dedicated to someone or something that deserves a pat on the back,” Natalie Pillsbury of the Turner Historical Association said. This year’s report is dedicated to the efforts to preserve the replicas of Turner’s past.
Once finished, the replicas will be placed inside an open-door shed away from the elements. The shed is being built by members of the Amish community in Unity and is scheduled to arrive April 15. The replicas will be moved to their new home the following week.
“I never noticed them before,” Chisholm said. “I will notice them now.”
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