READFIELD — A loud beeping cut through the chatter at the Readfield Historical Society’s annual Wine and Cheese Social.

After the guests fell silent and the beeps stopped bouncing off the blackboard and desks in the room, society President Flo Drake stepped forward.

Additional Photos

Ann Wilson, left and Susan Livingston lean in and take a look at the new Barbara H. Fogg Necessary Room on Friday evening at the Readfield Historical Society. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

Tom Adell cuts the toilet paper ribbon to ceremonially open the Barbara H. Fogg Necessary Room on Friday evening at the Readfield Historical Society. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

The Barbara H. Fogg Necessary Room was dedicated on Friday evening at the Readfield Historical Society. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

“That is what you will hear if the septic tank ever gets full,” she said. “We thought it was a good way to get everyone’s attention.”

As Drake explained, Friday was a big day for Readfield Historical Society and the 1853 schoolhouse that houses its museum and office. With one flush of a toilet, they joined the 21st century.

The building served as a schoolhouse until the construction of Readfield Elementary School in 1955, but it never had running water. An annex with a privy pit was built in the early 1930s so children wouldn’t have to go outside to relieve themselves.

Even back then, it wasn’t a very nice facility, recalled Evelyn Potter, 80, the society’s historian.

“I lived right down the road, so my mother said: ‘Don’t you dare use those toilets. You come home,'” Potter said.

The annex continued to deteriorate, and eventually had mold in the walls and a leaky roof. The historical society’s board talked about taking it down and installing running water as early as the 1990s, Drake said, but nothing was ever done.

Things came to a breaking point a couple of years ago when the privy seat gave way underneath a docent.

“We found when we went to take the annex down, we could wiggle the supposedly supporting posts under the back of that annex, and the only thing holding up the annex was that concrete poo pit,” Drake said.

So she sent out a letter last year seeking donations, and members came through in a big way. In a matter of months, they raised about $25,000, treasurer Lee Hepfner said.

The project has cost about $30,000 so far, and the walls still need to be finished, among other work. The first floor of the addition will provide work and office space, in addition to the bathroom, and the windowless second floor will be used for archival storage.

Maranacook Market, next door, is providing the water because the society could not afford a well.

The toilet had its first flush on Thursday as a test, but it was publicly inaugurated Friday evening.

Augusta resident Tom Adell snipped a “ribbon” of toilet paper and colorful streamers hung across the door, then poured a little sparkling wine into the toilet bowl — “Not too much!” onlookers cautioned — and flushed.

Adell donated the last bit of money needed to get the bathroom done, Drake said, and asked that it be named the Barbara H. Fogg Necessary Room.

Fogg was Adell’s high school classmate, longtime friend and partner for the last years of her life. Before Fogg’s death from cancer in 2008, her primary hobby was genealogy, and she donated binders of history and family artifacts to the society.

“She always said, ‘If we ever win the lottery, we need to buy them a bathroom,'” said Adell, 83. “She spent all day here. She didn’t feel it was sanitary enough.”

Adell handed off the sparkline wine to Drake, who went around the room pouring for toasts.

Among the first to poke their heads into the little room were Readfield residents Ann Wilson and Susan Livingston.

“I think it will be fantastic to have that,” Livingston said. “You didn’t see the compost toilet.”

But, she added, it still seemed like a lot of fanfare for a toilet.

“I’ve never seen champagne wasted like that on a toilet,” she said. “Only in Readfield.”

Susan McMillan — 621-5645

smcmillan@mainetoday.com

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