By Nancy K. Crevier

Selling one's home entails finessing emotions and practicality. It is as much about leaving behind the heart as it is about leaving behind the hearth. When a person has been custodian of a home's place in history, as well, it can further complicate matters. This is the issue Sandy Hook homeowner Elin Hayes grapples with these days, now that she had put Far Away Meadows on the market.

Far Away Meadows on Bradley Lane in Sandy Hook was the home of Grace Moore, an international star of opera, movies, radio, and stage in the early half of the 20th Century. Born in 1898 in Tennessee, the soprano known as "The Tennessee Nightingale" was married to Spanish actor Valentin Parera, in France, in 1931.

In 1937 the couple bought the early 18th Century house on Bradley Lane. Building first a guest house (moved across Nutmeg Lane during a later owner's divorce dispute) on the 348 acres, in which to live during renovations to the pre-Revolutionary War house, the couple had a kitchen, great room, and game room added on, and named the property Far Away Meadows, evoking the expansive vistas of those days.

"Grace Moore loved Far Away Meadows. She even devoted an entire chapter to it in her autobiography," said Ms Hayes. The elegant home and beautiful property of the mid-20th Century was a long-forgotten thing, though, when she and her late husband, Tim Hayes, came upon the listing in 1993.

"We were living in Ansonia at the time and looking for a house. The market was crazy then. But I picked up one of those color-photo real estate booklets and saw this house advertised for just $269,000," said Ms Hayes. By then, the house had been on the market for more than three years, and the real estate agents were not interested in speaking with anyone other than another broker. Fortunately, as a property manager, Mr Hayes had many real estate connections, including his partner, a broker, who got the details on the property for them.

The house was in foreclosure "and was an absolute mess. We looked at it twice, but Tim could see that it was a diamond in the rough. He had vision, and it was the difference between buying it and walking away from it."

Even though she grew up in Newtown, Ms Hayes (nee Elin Fekete) had never heard of Grace Moore.

"We had no idea of the history of the place when we bought it. As a real estate person, Tim was looking for the most house for the least amount of money," she said.

A casual conversation with neighbors at a tag sale up the street, shortly after they had purchased the property, awakened them to the historical value of Far Away Meadows. Piece by piece, the history of Far Away Meadows came home to them.

"Kaaren Valenta wrote a story in The Newtown Bee about our restoration of the property in 1994 [July 8 issue], and people came out of the woodwork. People would give us articles and photos. So we were up to speed on Grace Moore pretty swiftly," said Ms Hayes.

The home's history became a passion for the Hayeses, she said. Most likely predating 1730, based on the use of wooden lintels in the large fireplaces in the original section of the house, it was probably built by one of the early Newtown settlers, the Bradleys, she said. A September 29, 1939, photograph in The Hartford Times shows Ms Moore poring over accounting books from a time when part of the house was used as a general store.

"What we found out was that Grace Moore was a very savvy person. In everything I've read about her, it seems she was a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it," said Ms Hayes.

A paved Bradley Lane is one of those desires that Ms Moore engineered. "Bradley Lane was just a stone road when Grace and her husband moved here. Then the governor of Connecticut asked her to sing at his inauguration. Well, Grace Moore didn't sing for free. She said she would be happy to do so — for two things. She wanted Bradley Lane paved, and she wanted a bidet in her house!" Ms Hayes said. Ms Moore sang, the road was paved, and the bidet, not generally available at the time, was installed.

When the opera star's life was cut short in a takeoff crash at the airport in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1947, the house began its run through a series of owners, some more loving than others.

Screenplay writers Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin bought Far Away Meadows following Ms Moore's death, owning it up until the mid-1950s. It was during this time that segments of the 1949 movie Adam's Rib, starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, was filmed there.

"Around 1955, it looks like the house went back on the market and it was bought by a developer," said Ms Hayes. The property was divided into smaller parcels of five, three, and then two acres. "The developer lived here, until his wife divorced him. She got to keep the house, but he moved the guest house next door, and lived there with his secretary, his second wife," Ms Hayes has been told.

In 1967, the house was sold to the John Hindrum family. "I think he loved the house, too," Ms Hayes said. It was Mr Hindrum, she said, who built the original garden arbor that is the model for the present-day arbor. "His arbor was crushed by a big tree during an ice storm that also destroyed the shelter over the outdoor barbeque," Ms Hayes said.

It was when Mr Hindrum died and the house was sold in 1972 that Far Away Meadows began to fall into disrepair. "That was the beginning of the end. It was flipped a couple of times, but it had already started to decline. This house is a full-time job. The last owner was Justin Manus, an entertainment attorney from New York City, who thought he would use it as a weekend house. This house is not a weekend investment," emphasized Ms Hayes.

It was history that brought down history, in the end. "Around 1988, a tree fell on the house, and not just any tree. It was the certified largest living maple tree in Connecticut," Ms Hayes said. The huge maple crushed the back corner of the house, rolled off of the roof, and smashed the patio. But rather than put the money back into the house received from the insurance pay out, the owner appears to have elected to just put "band aids" on the house. Shortly after, the house went into foreclosure.

"This house was in really compromised condition when we saw it. We bought it with a vision, but we almost didn't consider what it would take to get it to my husband's goal: perfection," she said. After two months of late nights dealing with a massive termite problem, replacing rotted sills and roof, and just shoring it up, the Hayeses moved in to Far Away Meadows.

"We felt a huge amount of ownership as we found out more about Grace Moore. The passion we found that Grace Moore had had about the house was the same passion my husband had. Our mission was not only to save a 300-year-old house, but to preserve her legacy associated with the house," Ms Hayes said. "It became two-fold: the history of the structure, and the history of Grace Moore."

It took them a year and a half of nonstop renovating to bring Mr Hayes's visions to reality, she said. Ironically, and wonderfully, said Ms Hayes, when the renovations were nearly complete and they began receiving early photographs of Far Away Meadows, they realized they had instinctively preserved it as it should have been. As an example, she recalled that an air conditioner had at some point been cut into the original ornate door surround by the side door. The structure was destroyed when they ripped out the air conditioner, and the Hayes wondered what to put back.

Putting her skills as a graphic artist to work, Ms Hayes drew what she wanted for the door surround. "We later got pictures, and it was originally just like what we had done. It was almost eerie," she said. Pictures they received post-restoration also showed the house, avocado green when they purchased it, as having been white — the color they had selected to paint it.

"We followed our instincts, and as we learned the history, we found we had done it correctly. It was pretty incredible," said Ms Hayes.

Three years into the project, they turned their attention to the grounds, hiring a landscape architect from Boston to help them. They had already taken out overgrown hemlocks and opened the property up by removing dying trees.

Just when the 1,000 perennials they had ordered were delivered, Ms Hayes discovered she was pregnant. A friend ended up helping her husband put in the plants, many of which still survive. "Of course, through the years, the gardens have changed, but the original structure of our gardens is still there. We added some garden structures to enhance the property," she said.

A wisteria-laden pergola softens the approach to the pool, and a delicate trellis, heavy with honeysuckle, lends privacy to the side patio. The new arbor arches above two wooden folding chairs at the rear of the back lawn, just opposite the towering stone outdoor barbeque and fireplace.

Their daughter, Mairin Moore Hayes, was born in 1997, and the memories began to build. "We felt we were stewards of a part of Newtown history,"said Ms Hayes.

In 2005, though, Mr Hayes died unexpectedly. The family lawyer assumed Ms Hayes would sell Far Away Meadows, but that assumption made her dig in her heels and stay put.

"I decided I would keep it. It was the only home my daughter, then 8, had known. It was not just a house. It was a part of our identity, the history, and what her father had done. It would have been difficult to uproot us. I see my husband's fingerprints on everything. He was very proud of this achievement," she said.

But it is time now, she admitted, to move on. Following a year of detaching herself from the emotional aspect of Far Away Meadows, she has decided to put the house up for sale.

"I've taken on the role of manager of this house, and I'm ready to let someone else have this job. I am tired," said Ms Hayes. "It is a great house, and it has enriched our lives in so many ways," she said. Gazing out the bow window of the great room to the lawn and gardens rolling out behind the house, Ms Hayes said, "I mean, I get to get up every day and look out the window at this."

Many items have come home to Grace Moore's Far Away Meadows, and this, said Ms Hayes, is a dilemma for her now. Over the years, their Grace Moore collections have grown, from sheet music, lobby cards, movie poster, autographed items, photographs, and scrapbooks, to Grace Moore's grand piano, gifted to them by Ms Moore's sister-in-law.

"It all gives us insight into who Grace Moore really was," said Ms Hayes, "and they still come up on eBay. What if someone buys it who doesn't care about the history, doesn't want the memorabilia?" she fretted.

Her hope is that the next owner will cherish the history of Far Away Meadows.

"If someone is interested, they will become immersed in the history. I would feel very satisfied if that was the case. Then, it lives on. This house had lost its identity, and we gave it back. I think that as long as the house is loved, that identity won't be lost again," Ms Hayes said.

"It needs someone with the right mix — an appreciation of history and the means to take care of [the house and grounds]," she said, "and then, love will grow."

As much as Ms Hayes and her daughter know that it is time to pass the mantle, setting down the keys and walking away that final day will not be easy, she admitted. "But we will always be able to drive by here and say, 'We lived there. We lived at Far Away Meadows.'"

Far Away Meadows will be a featured home on the June 30 Newtown Historic Society House and Garden Tour.

The 16th annual event, for which organizers have found nine locations that fit a theme of "A New Look At Newtown's Oldest Places," includes six homes dating from the early 18th Century to the early 19th Century and their gardens, as well as three garden-only locations.

The self-guided tour will take place rain or shine, from 11 am to 5 pm. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the tour. Maps will be provided with reservations as well as to those who purchase tickets on June 30. For tickets or additional information call 203-426-5937 or visit www.newtownhistory.org.