If you grew up in Colrain before, say, the 1980s, chances are you graduated proudly from eighth grade across from the Post Office in Memorial Hall. And maybe you learned to square dance there. For most of the 20th century, Memorial Hall was the social center of Colrain. The Grange met in meeting rooms upstairs and held well-attended suppers. It was home to the local posts of the American Legion and the VFW. Nationally-known entertainers, local minstrel shows and entertainments with local musicians drew audiences there from around Franklin County and southern Vermont.
The Women’s Relief Corps, founded in 1886 as auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, raised funds with suppers, dances, bake sales and quilt auctions to build Veteran’s Memorial Hall to honor the 198 men of Colrain who fought in the Civil War. Completed in 1895 for $6,000, the structure included an “audience hall” on the first floor with a large stage, and dressing rooms in the basement. Upstairs, the GAR held their meetings in the “post room,” and ladies gathered by the fireplace in the “parlor” near the kitchen.
By 2011, when the town celebrated its 250th anniversary, Memorial Hall was empty and abandoned. Efforts by the town to sell the building failed, and the structure was demolished in 2013 at a cost of about $60,000.
(The site is now the home of the less attractive but useful "Hub" for our municipal broadband network.)
