Murray Hall History
The town of Marlow underwent a
pronounced population shift in the 1830s and 40s as hillside farms were sold
and the young sought employment at the mills along the Ashuelot River. This
prompted the Methodists to relocate their building, the First Methodist Church,
which had stood on Marlow Hill since 1827, to its present site down in the
village. The decision was so controversial that, in1849, the remaining members
on the hill put up one of their own - the Second Methodist Church. This was the
first iteration of the building we now call “Murray Hall”.
The congregation of this Second
Methodist Church, however, continued to dwindle over the next two decades. In
1873 the Universalist Society, which had been organized in Marlow in 1847,
purchased the building and moved it to the village to a site on Forest Road
that belonged to Jonathan Howard. They renamed it “Murray Hall” in honor of
John Murray (1741-1815), the founder of the Universalist denomination in the
United States.
For several years services were
occasional during summer months. According to local historian, Elgin Jones:
“Because of deaths and removals the society so decreased in numbers that no
services were held for some years prior to 1910.”
In 1909 Murray Hall was christened
“Excelsior Grange”, when it was sold to the Patrons of Husbandry, No. 136,
which was organized in 1888 and celebrated its 10th anniversary at Jones Hall.
The Keene Evening Sentinel reported: “After twenty years of existence Excelsior
Grange at length owns a home of its own.”
That same year the grangers had the
north side of the roof re-shingled, and, sometime after 1916, they removed the
steeple as it had become too costly to repair.
In the following decades Marlow’s
population declined, and so did the membership of the Excelsior Grange. On June
12, 1986 the organization sold the building to the NH State Grange, which in
turn sold it to Gallup & Hall, co-founders of PC Connection, Inc.
In 2002 Gallup & Hall conveyed
the land and building to the Marlow Historical Society. The Society worked
diligently for years to restore the building and to document its 165-year
history. A renovated Murray Hall now houses the Society’s museum, office and
archives, in a space accessible to people of all ages and abilities.
