Town Leaders and Historical Society Face Off Amid Deep Budget Cuts

 

Peter Sorenson, president of the Enfield Historical Society, examines a historic glass slide in the museum’s archive room. The Society’s collection includes thousands of items documenting Enfield’s past.

An 80% cut in town funding may force the Enfield Historical Society to do what town leaders most want to prevent: sell historic properties.

The Society expected about $26,000 from the town budget that began July 1, but President Peter Sorenson received just $6,000. There was no explanation for the reduction.

The town has tied its future funding to new financial disclosure requirements. Mayor Ken Nelson also called for a full meeting with the Society's board—not just Sorenson.

Nelson’s demand reveals a deep mistrust and suggests that personal tensions are fueling the dispute as much as policy differences.

The Society, founded in 1960, is a private, nonprofit organization that operates the museum in the Old Town Hall and owns the Martha Parsons House at 1387 Enfield St. and Wallop School, one of the last surviving one-room schoolhouses in the state.

A Home with History, A Future in Question

The conflict with the town began in 2023 when the Society said it was considering the sale of the Parsons House. Maintenance was expensive, visitors were few, and options to generate revenue—like event rentals—proved impractical. Even the most recent insurance bill -- nearly $7,000 -- added to the pressure. 

The Society intends to decide on the property's future in January 2026.

Nelson doesn't want the house sold. "Our job is to maintain our rich history and not allow it to be sold off because of mismanagement over the decades," he said, in an email.

"We are still willing to work with them once they come up with a plan that will not require the sale of the Parsons House," Nelson said, who sees the town on a mission to "save" the Society.

The town made an informal offer to acquire the house for $1—an offer the Society rejected. It's unclear, however, what the town would do with the Parsons House. At the same time, the Council has not renewed the lease for the Old Town Hall. Nelson said they won't do so without knowing the Society's plans. "We have no other intended use for the building and no one is asking them to leave."

Standing Their Ground

Sorenson, for his part, rejects the idea that the Society needs rescuing. "We don't need to be 'saved'," he said. "Our work needs to be respected and our efforts enjoyed by a community that cares about history—a history that we would like to continue to find new avenues to make available to everyone."

What's particularly frustrating to Sorenson is that the town's funding decisions are based on two outdated issues: the Parsons Trust lawsuit, which was settled in 2015 over control of the property, and a rent-free apartment arrangement with a caretaker, which the Society ended nearly two years ago.

"Unfortunately, the Town Council has chosen to defund the Historical Society, not for anything they have done in the past, but for what the Council believes the Society will do in the future," Sorenson said.

Society Expands Digital and Educational Programs

This criticism comes even as the Society has modernized and expanded its mission.

It has created digital archives and “digital twins” of its museums, and reimagined exhibits with new displays that add narrative context to museum visits in the Old Town Hall.

The Society also developed African American history exhibits in partnership with the Enfield chapter of the Ujima Alliance, launched a Young Historians program, and continues to host children at the Wallop School and Old Town Hall, among other efforts.

One of its more creative initiatives is Spirited Interviews, a video series featuring “ghosts” of historically significant figures who share Enfield’s history in an engaging and entertaining way.

Narrative displays

A Legacy Reimagined

As part of this work, the Society hired an archivist to conduct an in-depth review of the Martha Parsons House collections. That research reshaped the Society’s understanding of Parsons’ life. Parsons was a successful businesswoman, but also a gay woman who kept her personal life hidden. She often signed documents as M. Parsons to avoid revealing her gender.

No Seat at the Table

However, as the Society expands its outreach, it's being sidelined in a key effort to recognize Enfield's history in America's founding. The town rejected Sorenson's application to the Enfield America250 Commemoration Committee, effectively keeping the Society off this committee. Nelson cited an excess of applicants: "more applicants than places."

Emails suggest that the town's explanation for why the Historical Society was left off the Enfield America250 anniversary committee does not match the record. In January staff were still struggling to fill the roster, writing, "I have 8 applications as of right now. They won't appoint until I have 9."

The rejection left the Historical Society—the primary keeper of Enfield's history—without representation on the committee. Yet the Society's records document Enfield militia who answered the Lexington Call and fought in the opening battle of the Revolutionary War, raising questions about why it was excluded from the America250 effort.

Sorenson moved to Enfield in 2018 and is retired, having most recently served as a training director for Pfizer Inc. Since relocating, he has published two books about Enfield (see appendix). He has a third work nearing completion on a history of Thompsonville.

Town Demands, Society Responds

Nelson’s repeated emphasis on the Historical Society’s “refusal to show the records” is central to his argument that the group has been mismanaged. In his emails, he frames the refusal as a matter of secrecy and “mismanagement over the decades,” using it to justify conditioning funding on new oversight requirements. To date, the town has not presented any public documentation showing that the Society’s financial filings support those concerns.

The Society, however, insists it complies with all disclosure rules, noting that it files the publicly available IRS Form 990, like all nonprofits, and had submitted the required funding form to the Town Manager’s office. It believes the town’s demands go beyond what is typically required and that it’s being unfairly singled out.

The following exchanges underscore just how sharply the two sides differ.

Regarding Financial Disclosures:

The Society states that it submitted a detailed document, provided by the Town Manager's office, requesting funding. It was unaware of any changes to the policy, and the town never communicated

process changes to the board.

"If the Town wanted to review our financial state to ensure we're solvent, we, and most all other nonprofits, must submit a Form 990 to the IRS," it said. This information is publicly available through the IRS.

The Status of the Parsons Endowment:

The town's request to detail the state of the Parsons' endowment "is an unusual request and outside their need to know," the Society said.

Control of Society Assets:

The Society's view: "We cannot have an outside agency, like the Town Council, restrict our ability to purchase or divest ourselves of properties based on our Mission Statement and/or our Strategic Plan. We cannot commit to NOT selling OR NOT buying properties; the board has discussed both possibilities in the past."

Concerning a Meeting With the Board:

In its response, the Society offered to host the Council at the Old Town Hall Museum: "We would be happy to invite the Town Council to meet at the Old Town Hall Museum with our entire board, so we can tell them all about our good works over the years and detail some of our goals for the future. That way, some of the Town Council board members can see the inside of the museum for the first time."

"We are proud of our museums and the work that all of our volunteer staff have done and are currently doing," the Society said in its response.

Thompsonville Bottling Works

Looking Ahead

The Historical Society has some support on the Town Council. Councilmember Bob Cressotti said the group should be "fully funded," calling the museum's collection "really mind-boggling."

Still, what happens next—and whether the town will collaborate with the Society to create a meaningful experience for the 250th Anniversary—remains unclear.

Whether the town and the Society can find common ground may determine not only the fate of a historic property but the future of Enfield's relationship with its own history.

Appendix:

Enfield books by Peter Sorenson

Available in the library or at book stores

Hazard Powder - The Powder Hollow Explosion of 1913. From the book write-up: "A redefinition of the people and the history behind the industry that carved the town of Hazardville out of the belly of Enfield, and a reframing of the destruction of a way of life by men whose only allegiance was to money."

Sexing Chickens. A rich collection of stories about Enfield from a believed shark attack in Freshwater Swimming Hole, hunts for buried treasure, and other stories.

Sorenson is also finishing up a book on the history of Thompsonville.

Visit the Museums

Old Town Hall Museum Hours

Open Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 pm through Oct. 26, 2025. Open for tours and research other days and times by appointment.

Wallop School Museum Hours

Open 2:00 to 4:00 pm. on four Sundays, and other times by appointment. The last Sunday this year is Sept. 14.

Martha Parsons House Museum Hours

By appointment -- contact the Enfield Historical Society.