DURHAM – The Durham Historical Society is looking for new members to beef up its ranks and help keep the town’s history alive.

At a recent open house at the Union Church/old Town Hall on Route 136, Rita Merrill, the president of the society said the group’s membership has dropped.

“We need new members,” she said.

The historical society meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m., with meetings in the warmer months held in the Union Church/old Town Hall. Because the Union Church has no heat, the society meets at the Eureka Community Center in the winter. All meetings are open to anyone interested in the history of the town, which was incorporated in 1789 and was originally called Royalsborough when it was first settled in the 1760s.

The society has many artifacts from Durham’s past, and is also trying to save some of the town’s older buildings.

“What we’re trying to do is preserve (Union Church) and the West Durham United Methodist Church,” Merrill said. “They’re two significant buildings, both on the National Register of Historic Buildings and in our opinion worth saving.”

Anyone wishing to join the historical society can email Merrill at rls826@gwi.net or come to the group’s next meeting in September. “(We want to) keep it (the historical society) going for the next generation,” Merrill said. “I think it’s important.”

The interior of the Union Church, which also served as Durham’s Town Hall for many years, is filled with artifacts from the town’s past collected by the Durham Historical Society.      
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