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U <br /> 0 <br /> 0 <br /> C <br /> In <br /> co' <br /> and stop abruptly, stone steps and curbs in strange places, rolling berms, receding paths, <br /> whispers of past gardens,silent gravestones,and ancient,sidewalk-heaving shade trees.These o <br /> do not immediately carry meaning for most of us.How could they?For how could the pass- m <br /> 0 <br /> erby possibly sense that those carefully formed berms once supported flagstone sidewalks <br /> that kept the long,rustling skirts worn by nineteenth-century ladies away from the muddy, m <br /> unpaved streets?Sidewalks were just one of the features that rendered this an exceptionally m <br /> sophisticated and well-appointed town. D <br /> The mission of the Hidden Hillsborough Committee was to record the persistent pres- T <br /> ence of these easily overlooked buildings and features, along with their historic resonance D <br /> and rationale. This book is our modest attempt to give them a voice as to the kind of life Q0 <br /> n <br /> they witnessed and the very different rhythm and pace of the times for which they were <br /> created.Our wish to let the past speak for itself was,in part,to encourage the preservation o <br /> of these precious testimonials, as so many were in danger of slipping into decay or being <br /> cast aside for new, more modern materials or tastes or simple necessities such as concrete o <br /> sidewalks or sewer lines.The rest was sheer curiosity: We wanted to know more about our <br /> historic town. <br /> Four years later,the committee had photographed,researched, and mapped as many of <br /> these town features as possible.We confined our inquiry to the National Register Historic <br /> District along with the adjacent National Register properties on the immediate outskirts <br /> of town. Our timeframe was set generally from between 1754,when the town was founded, <br /> and World War L As it happens with some happy collaborative endeavors, the committee <br /> realized that it was now looking at a story whose richness and historic value added up to <br /> more than the sum of its parts,and that the results of the project had indeed developed into <br /> a coherent record. <br /> IF THE TRUTH be told,this study could not have happened without the responses of prop- <br /> erty owners—thereby avoiding embarrassing confessions and apologies, remorseful admis- <br /> sions that zealous committee members had been peeping in the windows of their neighbors' <br /> outbuildings and over their back fences in search of data.How shocking! This could never <br /> happen in Hillsborough! But in fact, homeowners warmly complied with our requests for <br /> access,in order to study,measure,or photograph features of their properties.They unlocked <br /> their gates and opened the creaking doors on their little buildings—and their barns, <br /> I <br /> XXIV HIDDEN HILLSBOROUGH <br />