“It was a big tree, that old house did very well.” —Brian Molloy of JP Maguire Associates, regarding the storm-damaged home at 62 Main Street.

A day after “the storm” on May 15 last year uprooted trees and crumbled homes and neighborhoods across Newtown and the area, Brian Molloy and Dan Schenzer were having breakfast early in the morning at Newtown General Store on Main Street. Just a few doors away at 62 Main Street, Al Potter’s Newtown Arbor Services LLC was at work removing a maple that had fallen on Betsy Kenyon’s house.

The antique home at that location was built in 1785 by Henry Wood, the original owner, according to information provided by Ms Kenyon. He “reportedly held a clothing drive to benefit General George Washington’s Continental Army.”

62 Main Street was renovated with Victorian details in 1886 — the date etched on a section of chimney running through the attic — and has been well-maintained by Ms Kenyon, who has lived there since 1984.

Mr Molloy said that on May 16, 2018, Ms Kenyon walked into the general store at 7 am and found Mr Molloy and Mr Schenzer.

“She said, ‘I’m going to need your help,’” Mr Molloy commented.

“Funny, she just walked up to us. She needed our help, but so did everyone else,” said Mr Molloy about the tornado-like blasts that ripped through the area.

Newtown Arbor was at the house the morning after the storm, Ms Kenyon said.

“I was watching them take the trunk [of the tree] off my roof and went to the general store to get the workers coffee,” she said. She crossed the street, headed for the general store. Encountering Mr Molloy there “was random,” she said.

“As I walked out of the door, there was a JP Maguire truck just ready to pull out. I walked over to [Mr Malloy and Dan Schenzer of DH Schenzer Construction LLC] and asked if they had a few minutes to answer some questions about my major insurance claim and repair. They were very accommodating, and it ultimately played out into our going into contract for replacement damages,” Ms Kenyon said. “All of those from JP Maguire that played a part in the project were beyond amazing. I was so pleased with all of those who supported me through the process.”

They “walked across the street and saw the tree, still on the house,” Mr Molloy said. The prior day’s storm had dropped the upper half of a large maple — one of many along Main Street — onto the roof and chimneys.

Ms Kenyon was at work in Stamford when the storm hit.

“I was in my office in Stamford when I received a call from a neighbor advising me that a large maple tree fell through my roof,” she said.

Without her knowledge, Borough Tree Warden Rob McCulloch “had driven by my house and immediately called Al Potter [of Newtown Arbor Services], asking if he was available to be at my house first thing in the morning to remove the tree to avoid further damage. I was so grateful to have both Rob and Al as my ‘first responders.’”

Mr Molloy and Mr Schenzer soon began planning Ms Kenyon’s restoration work.

Unlike a modern reconstruction, Ms Kenyon’s antique post-and-beam home required a restoration. The team “had to locate antique lumber,” Mr Molloy said. “Dan drove to the Canadian border in a snowstorm” to get materials, he added.

“Timber framing, or post-and-beam construction, involves joining large pieces of wood with woodworking joints, or with wooden pegs, braces, or trusses. Metal nails were sparingly used, as they were an expensive commodity at the time. The exterior was often finished with clapboard or other wooden siding,” according to wikipedia.org.

It took some doing, Mr Molloy said, “but we were able to source everything. Not everyone does wooden roof and post and beam; it’s not run-of-the-mill construction.”

“It’s an awesome house,” said Mr Molloy, noting that the most challenging part was “recreating structural components to what was there.” The work, which was completed in past weeks, was both challenging and rewarding, he said.

One challenge “was keeping weather out of an antique home while ripping the roof off,” Mr Molloy said. “Not good if it snowed and rained inside the house. We did some demolition last summer. Engineers had to ascertain what was damaged by the impact of the tree. We did demolition so engineers could see the structure. We did it right away. Work started in earnest the beginning of the year.”

A common sight at the home in March and April of this year were the parked trucks, including Mr Molloy’s, building materials stacked on the lawn, and men climbing up and down ladders pulling apart old siding and roofing and doing the restoration work.

Mr Molloy said, “If you look at the attic, you would never know it was brand new.”

Although there remains “some interior work, the building is weather tight,” Mr Molloy said recently. Both chimneys are new. “When the tree collapsed the chimney, some debris fell down the chimney into the front sitting room, so we opened the wall and chimney to get the debris out of there.”

A Labor Of Love

Crews made some discoveries with the chimney work.

“We found out when replacing the chimney, which has an elbow, that a chimney doesn’t necessarily go straight up. There is a smoke chamber, and there were bricks and things trapped in both chimneys,” he explained.

Mr Schenzer said the repair work “was a full post-and-beam restoration. All post and beams were sourced out of Canada to replicate what was in the house.”

He said the tree “landed on the roof, damaged rafters, roof sheathing, the post and beam structure, and forced the front wall out several inches.” The front wall “needed to be jacked back into place.” The sourced materials — antique barn sheathing — allowed the restoration team to “put it back the way it was from the late 1700s,” Mr Schenzer said.

His crews handled all the replacement timber roofing and siding — everything on the shell — and demolition and removal of materials on the exterior of the house, he said.

During a restoration, Mr Schenzer commented, “You try to make it look as it was when first built, use the same materials. We saved what we could. It’s a labor of love,” he said. Unlike modern construction, “You’re not dealing with straight, square lumber.”

He said, “Back in 1700, everything was post-and-beam, and today, it’s all generic framing construction.”

“This house is perfect,” Mr Schenzer said. “It’s in great shape; for the most part, antiques are awesome.” Of Ms Kenyon’s house, he said, “Even a lot of the trim is still in good condition.”

During the winter, he said, “We drove to the Canadian border,” to get materials from a supplier that sells reclaimed barns. “The company disassembles them, and they save the beams and resell materials. They salvage what they can and give them new life.” He found what matched as closely as possible, Mr Schenzer said.

“You’ll never find that exact wood,” since houses were built from materials at or near the location.

“People cut down and used whatever was local. They were resourceful and built by hand,” he said, adding added that construction included the use of hand drills and chisels and hand-hewn wood. Pegs were whittled from oak. “There were no power tools,” Mr Schenzer said.

Mr Schenzer’s team “put it back the way it was,” with a few changes, he said. “When we stripped the siding, we found originally there was a more detailed trim.”

With that original trim uncovered, he said Ms Kenyon “loved it, and we re-trimmed with newer materials, but milled it to what was there before.”

Ms Kenyon remained living at home throughout the restoration, she said.

History Of A Home

Visiting the office of The Newtown Bee recently, Ms Kenyon provided information about her home’s history, some of which residents may have heard during the annual Holiday Festival, which includes house tours. Ms Kenyon has in the past opened her home, decorated for Christmas, to tours.

Based on the information, “folklore notes that a peddler from the north came down Main Street in a wagon filled with floor-to-ceiling windows, interior pocket-doors, and dome-shaped attic windows. All of those materials were installed in the 1886 renovation.” When Ms Kenyon purchased the house in 1984, she replaced the windows “to bring the character of the house back to period.” An interior pocket door was also removed.

The house has “exposed interior beams in certain rooms, original wide-board floors, six working fireplaces.”

During the 1984 renovation, “a gold pocket watch was found in the poured concrete front steps.”

The information states, “The watch was appraised, and the date was determined,” to be the same as the 1886 renovation. “Apparently, the watch had fallen off a workman’s belt while pouring the concrete slab, as a broken piece of rawhide was attached to the watch when found.” The watch is displayed in Ms Kenyon’s living room.

“A small piece of wood was cut out of the keeping room floor, leaving a recessed box with a finger-hole lid. Folklore claims this was to hide cash and jewelry,” states the information.

It also notes that Daniel Nash Morgan, Secretary of the US Treasury under President Grover Cleveland, “lived in the house from 1885 to 1897. A Democrat and a banker, Mr Morgan was born in Newtown, and “became mayor of Bridgeport,” states the information. He was once candidate for Governor of Connecticut and member of Sons of the Revolution. “While crossing a street, he was hit by an automobile, was badly injured, and died 12 days later in Bridgeport Hospital (1844-1931).” His father, Ezra Morgan, purchased the house in 1867.

The information Ms Kenyon provided also shows that Paul S. Smith, a previous owner and publisher of The Newtown Bee, was born at 62 Main Street in 1903. The father of current Publisher and Owner R. Scudder Smith, Paul was editor at The Newtown Bee from 1934 to 1972.

Today, with the restoration nearly complete, Ms Kenyon said, “They did a magnificent job.”