Woolwich is a community that takes its traditions seriously.

There is the traditional spring run of the alewives, the passing of the Boston Post Cane to the oldest resident, and the tradition the board of selectmen will carry on Monday evening.

On June 15 the board members will leave their usual confines above the town office on the Nequasset Road to convene in the town’s historic 1837 Town Hall. The meeting will be gaveled to order at 6 p.m.

Selectmen’s Chairman David King, Sr. said the tradition started back in 1996, not long after the townspeople raised funds to restore the landmark yellow building located at the junction of Old Stage Road and Dana Mills Road.

“Most people are kind of surprised when they go inside,” King said as he showed this reporter into the building. The meeting room is lined with straight-back wooden benches facing the front and a small gallery occupied by the board.

The gallery was built when the town had a three–member board. Today, with five board members plus a town administrator, the seating is kind of tight. For years town records were kept here as well in a little room alongside the gallery. Although not much bigger than a closet, this room also served as the office for the town clerk.

King said the building’s restoration effort was lead by two longtime residents: Richard McElman and Bob DeWick.

“Right after I was first elected to the selectboard they brought me down here and told me that something needed to be done about preserving this building,” King said. “I remember one of them telling me, ‘If you don’t take care of your past how can you take care of your future?’”

The old town hall was erected in 1837 back when Old Stage Road served as the main thoroughfare through town. In those days no bridge linked the village of Woolwich to Bath; people crossed the Kennebec River by boat. One of the ferries ran from the Woolwich side of the river at Day’s Ferry.

According to “History of Woolwich, Maine: A Town Remembered,” the town hall was paid for with monies the community received from the federal government, the result of the liquidation of the National Debt. President Andrew Jackson deserves the credit for that. When he left office America was debt free.

Congress dispersed these surplus funds to the states; Maine’s legislature chose to allocate its share to its cities and towns.

Woolwich chose to use its money, $800, to purchase land and build the town hall. The location was chosen because this place is geographically the center of town. Its builder was a local man named William Leonard. The 40 by 35-foot building has always been painted its distinctive yellow color.

Over the decades the town hall was used faithfully as the place for town meetings, elections and public hearings.

By the late 1940s the cherished hearing room could no longer accommodate the town’s growing population. In 1951 the town’s board of selectmen moved its proceedings and town meeting to the Woolwich Central School. The old town hall was nearly forgotten until February 1976 when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Returning to the here and now, Selectman Allison Hepler is looking forward to returning to the old town hall.

“The space is a clear connection to the past,” she said. “From its high steps to the challenging acoustics, the building can’t help but give people a sense of how the town’s forefathers and foremothers experienced the life of the town and considered the important issues of the day.”

Hepler said she wished the town could use the old building for more than just one or two occasions a year.

King, Hepler and the other selectmen Lloyd Coombs, Dale Chadbourne and Jason Shaw are all hoping there’ll be a good turnout for next Monday’s meeting.

“I really want to encourage people to attend if for no other reason than to have a look inside this building,” added King. “Of all the things I’ve done as a selectmen restoring the old town hall is what I’m most proud of.”