I've been collecting photographs of the many, many weather vanes in the Nutfield area (Derry and Londonderry, New Hampshire). If you want a challenge, I'll post the locations at the bottom of the page so you can scroll down far enough to see the photo, but not the location, and try to guess where you may have seen these lovely weathervanes.
Do you know the location of weather vane #13?
This weather vane is located on the barn at the Alvirne High School in Hudson, New Hampshire. There is quite a history to this weather vane! I had driven by hundreds of times, thinking that perhaps this weather vane was inspired by E. B. White's book Charlotte's Web, which took place in a barn. I thought it was an appropriate choice for a school. But the truth is even better! The Alvirne agricultural school was founded by Wilbur H. Palmer, whose nickname was "Web". The school honored Mr. Palmer with this weather vane on the barn. A superb choice! Mr. Web Palmer is still alive and has read this blog post.
(Did you notice that Web's real name Wilbur, was the name of Charlotte's porcine friend, too?)
The Alvirne High School website http://www.alvirnehs.org/
Click here to see the other weather vanes in this series
UPDATE 5 April 2013
I received two email messages from Wilbur Palmer... "Just want you to know that I am Webb (Wilbur Palmer and I am still kicking. All info is correct about Alvirne Weather vane except I have not passed away" ... and "The original [barn] was destroyed by fire in 1993, and when I had the barn rebuilt the school district surprised me by erecting the weather vane. They said I would be retiring in a few years and they wanted Web to remain looking after the property." Webb Palmer.
Thanks, Webb!
---------------
To Cite/Link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday- A spider web", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 26, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/10/weathervane-wednesday-spider-web.html: accessed [access date]).
This is nice, and also nice that you were able to find out the interesting story behind it.
ReplyDelete