Our Hometown
Warner | Main Street Warner
Clip | 7m 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Neil Nevens tells about their non-profit, "Main Street Warner".
Neil Nevens reflects on decades of community building in Warner, NH—starting with a bookstore, a nonprofit, and a vision to restore Main Street. From humble beginnings to founding the Jim Mitchell Community Park, Nevens shows how local leadership and shared values can shape a town’s future.
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Our Hometown is a local public television program presented by NHPBS
Our Hometown
Warner | Main Street Warner
Clip | 7m 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Neil Nevens reflects on decades of community building in Warner, NH—starting with a bookstore, a nonprofit, and a vision to restore Main Street. From humble beginnings to founding the Jim Mitchell Community Park, Nevens shows how local leadership and shared values can shape a town’s future.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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We've lived in Warner since 1985 and it was a good decision, to move from Concord to Warner.
And we've never regretted it.
For one minute.
Currently, I'm president of, our 501 C3 nonprofit, Main Street, Warner and, involved in, the bookstore, Main Street bookends.
My role there has always been since 1998 to, vacuum and clean the toilets, and I've readily accepted that.
So I'm happy to, be involved in Main Street.
Warner.
We, put the nonprofit together in 2000, and, you know, that was the time when, late 1990s, we were losing our main street.
We lost Chrisenty's grocery store.
We lost, Perkins Hardware.
We wanted to do more.
So we established the nonprofit in 2000.
We turned the land over around the bookstore to the nonprofit that now is the Jim Mitchell community Park and, Main Street Warner Stage.
And so with our summer concert series there, we, tracked thousands of people over the course of the summer and early fall.
So in 2004, Main Street, Warner, the town, George Pellettieri from the Pellettieri landscape architect, came together, working with, plan New Hampshire to organize a design charrette.
We brought the community together.
Over the course of the, weekend, we had over 400 people turn out, and we simply said, do you want what do you want to have happen down at exit nine?
And, you know, just a very consistent and very vocal, statement made that we don't want to lose our main street.
We don't want to lose Warner to exit nine.
And then, Main Street.
Warner continued to work on its, other programs, literacy programs, working with Simon's elementary school here in town, scholarship programs.
And, we continue to build from there.
But in, 2020, just as Covid started to hit, we had the opportunity, to purchase, one of the oldest, buildings in, in Warner, and, this is the original Baptist church, that was built in 1833, when the Baptist combined with the Congregational church in 1964, they sold the buildings to the Masons.
And so, in, September 25th, 2020, Main Street Warner was able to purchase the lodge.
We, got a call from the, Masons, realtor saying that they had a cash offer, and, but they would give us the weekend, to see what we could raise.
So over the course of the weekend, we raised $100,000.
And, so we submitted that, not knowing what the other, offer was, we later found out that it was a more lucrative offer from a condo developer out of Concord.
We didn't know that, but the Masons turned us down.
They accepted 95,000.
And, I mean, that tells you a lot about the Masons and their history.
They accepted in 95.
They said, you know, this is our first donation, to Main Street Warner.
They acknowledged the, at that time, 20 year history of Main Street Warner in the impact that the nonprofit, you know, has had on this community and, where, this past year able to start, with our renovations.
And so, we're focused right now on developing, the, community kitchen and meeting space in the newer part of the building, which, was built in 1883.
The Masons put the kitchen on in 1976.
So we've been concentrating on that, and we've made wonderful progress, significant progress where, you know, on, schedule to be able to open up the facility, this coming fall, 2025, in no small effort to, not just the grants.
We've never just focused on the grants.
We've always depended upon, people here in Warner coming forward.
I mean, that's how we were able to build the park and construct the stage.
So it will be a wonderful interior space.
The community kitchen, the meeting space, and then the main hall, which will be the last to renovate, the 1833 part has beautiful stained glass windows from that time period.
There's a wonderful, concert organ, that was manufactured out of, Book and Hastings Organ Company out of Boston.
So, you know, just really excited that the organ, that it's a wonderful concert pipe organ.
It's in beautiful condition.
We've had several concert organists from, the area come down and take a look at it.
And so, you know, they're very anxious to, you know, start to, to put that back into use in terms of, fundraising were a little over halfway there, and we need to press forward a bit more, but I know the community will come together to make that, make that possible.
And what it does is, you know, create this, island, that, is right in the center of the village, and, you know, significant indoor Year-Round space, but also with the landscaping, it will create another, outside area for people to, to gather.
And, you know, that was always the intention of Main Street Warner.
We understood what it takes to, build, often rebuild, but to maintain a community.
And it's not just retail, you know, it has to be a mix that taps into, you know, certainly the economic aspects.
But it also has to connect with, the social and the cultural.
And so while, a project like this has been, always important, that's even more important today.
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Our Hometown is a local public television program presented by NHPBS