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Some History of
Caledonia War Memorial
When I came home from the Navy in February 1946 I joined the Legion. We had a meeting room on the second floor of the Town Building. We held our dinner meetings at the Iroquois Hotel run by Mr. Tickner. The fire hall at the time was on the first floor and many of the legion members were also firemen. Harold Griffin, Bob Freeman, Jack Skivington, Eldred O’Shea, Harold Wakefield, and John D. MacPherson were already home and were planning to build a post home. They had hired a Rochester architect, Alex Dailey, to make plans for a post home to be built on the Place Property, State Street where Meyers Campers now is. The Town Fathers did not feel that was a good idea as the State was planning to rebuild Route #5 around Caledonia to take the major traffic off Main Street. We only had about $2500.00 at that time, but we felt we could work very hard to pay for it. The Community Chest at that time had about $10,000.00 and we asked for a loan from them. The Town Fathers felt we would not be able to pay for the building and if anything happened to the Legion Post that The National Legion could claim the building. After much discussion about a home and how to keep it, Eldred O’Shea suggested incorporating under the name Caledonia War Veterans Memorial and so on November 19,1946, sixteen members signed the corporation papers. All the Officers had to be in good standing in Matthew Cleary Post #255 and any structure would belong to the Veterans of Caledonia. The Community Chest finally came through with $5000.00 and also gave the Gold Star Mothers $5000.00 to put a Memorial Stone next to the Caledonia Bank on State Street. Eventually it could no longer be left there so we moved it to the present site adding a stone for the Vietnam Veterans. The Legion Post decided to ask the townspeople to contribute to our cause. We went to the Merchants and residents of Caledonia and vicinity answering questions, listening to pro’s and con’s, asking for contributions to the building fund. We collected $11,000.00. At this time the Byam property, currently the Village Inn went up for sale at $25,000.00. A discussion and dinner meeting was held with 25 members present. After much discussion, a vote was taken with 12 members for the purchase and 13 members against. On November 16, 1948 Wilson Hamilton came forward giving us the land on Church Street to build our home where the old farm barn was removed. We had $20,000.00 and our land for an estimated total of $30,000.00. We talked to a good friend named Ken Phillips who made the plans for the building as it stands today. For the plans Ken wanted no money, only for us to move fieldstone from his land to the sight of the home he was building for himself. His home on Neal Road required a lot of fieldstone, so you can imagine how hard we worked. Ken asked William Byam to survey the Hamilton sight to show the relative ground elevation within the area and existing concrete wall of the old barn that stood in the area. Ken then incorporated those walls into the foundation of the building thus saving a great deal of construction costs. We started building on Church Street in 1950. Edwin Vokes and Warner Johnson did the foundation work. At that time it was all done by hand. Chet Rulifson and Paul Bonacquisti finished the block work and did all the brick work. Jack Gill and John Adams put in all the windows, put the rafters up and installed the roof. The Legion members helped whenever possible since at that time there were no power tools and all sawing had to be done by hand. John Bennett and Lawrence Krenzer did all the electrical work. Harold Relyea did the plumbing until he suffered a heart attack, and Robert Robinson finished the job. We went to the First National Bank for a loan. The Town Fathers still questioned our ability to maintain the building and after one and a half hours Frank O’Brien and the others decided to give us the loan. They felt in five years they would own the building and could use it for offices but as Slim Griffin told them it would be over his dead body. The loan for $7,500 was granted to us on December 28,1951 and all paid up on December 26, 1956. We moved into the new building in 1952 even though it was not all finished. There was all the painting to be done and the walls needed to be plastered. Steve Vascianne did some of the plaster work. We ran out of money about this time and borrowed about $2500.00 to put the hardwood floor in on the second floor. The two carpenters assisted by numerous Legion members finished the floor with Legion members sealing the floor. Second loan of $2500 was granted to us in July 1952 and also paid up on January 6,1967. As soon as we could we moved out of the Town Building to our own building even though it was not finished. We needed to start making some money. We bought chairs, made tables, and started running Bingo. Mark Ezard, Al Barton, and Bill Connor worked every Monday night to get things started. We formed 2 groups at first and worked every other week eventually having 3 groups. Bingo was good to us and we made money so we paid off the $7500.00 and borrowed $10,000.00 more. We now could finish off the building, buy more chairs and tables, and buy equipment. We now had Bingo, Turkey Raffle in November, and a Ham Raffle at Easter. These were all good moneymakers so we soon paid off the $10,000.00 too. In 1956 we formed the first firing squad as the bodies of the World War II Veterans were being returned to the US and families were requesting military funerals. There was still work to be done on the building. The ceiling downstairs had to be fireproofed with wire screen and plaster. The members got to work installing the wire screen so Walt Evans could plaster it. In May 1958, strict rules and licensing of Bingo became a problem. The building was valued at $44,000.00. We had to set up a fee for rental of it. We decided to take out a mortgage and finish the building. The kitchen was not finished, painting, yard work, and plumbing needed to be done. We again made money with Bingo. But in October 1960 we started what we called the Car Club turning it into the Money Club years later when cars began to cost so much. The first three cars cost $1966.03, $1940.00, and $1951.00. We bought from both car dealers, Brown Chevrolet and Beikirch Ford. With the help of the Car Raffle, Turkey Raffle, and Ham Raffle we managed to pay off the mortgage in a few years possibly early 60’s. Lester McGray, who at that time ran the Hardware, gave the entire original Bar, Back Bar, and the cabinet in the back room to us. The store next to the Hardware was a Saloon and he extended his Hardware into that area. These pieces were originally in the Marshall Inn that was torn down in the late 30’s to make room for the Atlantic Gas Station that is currently the AM PM Mini Mart. William Applebach owned the Inn at that time and moved all the equipment to make the Saloon in the building next to the Hardware. J.N. White Painted the mural on the wall downstairs. The original bar at the Legion was removed sometime later to make it larger as it is today. Morgan Macy of Quarry Road gave the Pool Table to us. He had sold the homestead and all the furniture. Walt Gilbert and I went over on a Saturday, took the pool table all apart, and brought it to it’s new home at the Legion. A new felt top was installed and over the years a lot of pool, cards, and dice games have been played on it. While all the work was done by Legion members we still found time to party and dance. Our first dance before the building was even finished was held on a Saturday night after we finished putting tile on the basement floor that afternoon. Music was by Slim Griffin, Gordon Huber, Dick Sweet, and Gerry Swanger. We had steak dinners, dances and New Years Eve parties thanks to all the ladies who volunteered both their help and dishes to pass. Many "Twist" dances were held with the Slim Griffin Orchestra, no wonder we all ended up with backs and knee problems. Since that time we have redone both Ladies and Men’s rooms, installed new windows and doors, rebuilt the bar, redone all the pictures of World War I and II, Korean and Vietnam. The kitchen has been improved and the Ladies Auxiliary has redone the Memorial Room. Don Cunningham
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