Members of the Hawthorne Community Association gathered Oct. 25 for the Nathaniel Hawthorne Boyhood Home $10,000 donation from Steven Kelsey-Hazen. From left are Jessica Bates, Abel Bates, Tom Ewig, Steven Kelsey-Hazen, Rebecca Tracy, MaryAnn Moeri, Barbara Brown, Margaret Myatt, Gilbert Brown and Sylvia Sullivan. All are residents of Raymond, except Myatt lives in Kennebunkport, and Kelsey-Hazen is a resident of California, and a seasonal resident of Raymond. Hawthorne Community Association photo
RAYMOND — Steven Kelsey Hazen of California, a longtime seasonal resident of the Casco-Raymond area, on Oct. 25 offered a donation of $10,000 to the Phase 2 fundraising campaign being conducted by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Boyhood Home in Raymond to fully repair and restore the building.
Previously, Hazen had donated $11,000 to Phase 1 of the fundraising effort, including $10,000 in memory of Clyde Stanley Murch (a founding member of the Hawthorne Community Association) and his wife, Edna Pearl Ames Murch, according to a news release from Abel Bates of the Hawthorne Community Association.
His new donation is offered in memory of his mother and father, Prudence Eleanor (Kelsey) Hazen and Franklin Graham Hazen, both of whom were ardent supporters of the Hawthorne Community Association. Clyde Murch and Hazen both trace their ancestry to Sally (Dingley) Murch, whose sister Susan (Dingley) Manning was married to Richard Manning, who build the Hawthorne House for his sister, mother of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The association was formed in 1922 and still oversees care of the building.
“In offering this gift, I wish to congratulate the residents of the Casco/Raymond area for their wonderful support for this fundraising effort, and to convey my sincere hope that others with ties to the region and/or to the Hawthorne House will be able to fund the remaining portion of the restoration project, so it can be completed in 2023,” Hazen said.
For more information, contact Bates at 207-318-7131 or jbates4@maine.rr.com.
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