Framingham History Center Blog

Good News!  We just received word that our proposal for $48,500 to the Mass. Historical Commission was selected for funding.  This is a matching grant and will be used to repair, re-point and clean the exterior masonry on the Edgell Memorial Library.  The funding comes from the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund and is highly competitive.  We are extremely pleased to have been chosen for this funding as we work to restore Framingham’s Civil War memorial especially with the 150th anniversary of the war fast approaching in April, 2011. 

Repairs will include filling this space with the missing stone which we have in our basement.

And repairing this cracked masonry on the east side of the building

And cleaning the locally quarried stone…

Stay tuned for matching grant initiatives and construction progress!

Anne Murphy
Executive Director

Mary Murphy and Ellen Fitzpatrick, author of Letters to Jackie Condolences from a Grieving Nation, at last night’s history roundtable.

The best part of last night’s roundtable were the contributions from the 30+ people in the group and then Ellen’s insight into their comments in light of the thousands of letters she poured over to put this book together.  People’s recollections were very moving and Mary Murphy was as entertaining as ever with her own recollections of her work chairing teas during the JFK campaigns and after the assassination, organizing the response to thousands of condolence letters to Mrs. Kennedy.

Mary donates her PT109 pin to the Framingham History Center.

This pin was given to Mary Murphy by Polly Fitzgerald – President Kennedy’s cousin – for her work on the campaign.  As we discussed last night, the FHC is looking for more Kennedy memorabilia connected to Framingham.  If you have any items to donate or items we might scan, please contact Dana Dauterman Ricciardi at curator@framinghamhistory.org.  In general the FHC is looking to broaden its collection of 20th century items.  What do you think we should be collecting? Let us know….

Anne Murphy
Executive Director