A Preservationist On Preservation

To the Editor:

I was delighted to join Newtown resident Mae Schmidle and have the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation be a co-sponsor of the recent forum on Historic Preservation and the campus at Fairfield Hills. I certainly knew from the beginning that bringing the “preservation pitch” to the Fairfield Hills discussion would be risky and might be misunderstood. Our intent was and is to keep the wonderful campus of buildings at Fairfield Hills at the forefront of any discussion about the property.

I would like to address the issue of the National Register of Historic Places. The Bee editorial of 12/17/99 states: “Once listed on the National Register, federal preservationists would have the final say on any proposed demolition, not the town or the state.” This is simply not the case. Unless federal money is used for the purchase or rehabilitation of Fairfield Hills, the federal government has no role, no say regarding demolition requests for National Register listings.

A National Register listing is surely a preservation tool, intended to recognize, give visibility to, and protect historic properties. But, as preservationists lament, a National Register listing is no guarantee that a building will not be demolished. National Register buildings are demolished too often for my taste. They are demolished with merely local discussion and compromise. They are demolished after court battles. They are demolished because they are so deteriorated they are a public safety issue.

A National Register listing benefits any developer who wants to rehabilitate a building, according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. Federal tax credits can be applied and equity raised.

A National Register listing is an honor; it is not easy to achieve. For Newtown to have in its midst such a unique and architecturally outstanding campus of buildings as Fairfield Hills should be a point of pride for a community with so many other wonderful historic buildings.

Historic does not have to be 200 years old. Historic means something significant in history happened there: the wreck of a gas station First Selectman Rosenthal refers to may be old, but does it have historic significance? No, but the campus of buildings at Fairfield Hills does.

Recognizing the historic significance of buildings across the United States is a job for trained historians whose research and conclusions consider a community’s experience and values with the buildings while drawing on broader historical patterns that reach beyond the community. This is certainly the case with the buildings at Fairfield Hills.

If the Connecticut Trust did nothing else last week in Newtown, I would be pleased to think we put the buildings back into the overall debate about the future of Fairfield Hills.

Sincerely,

Helen Higgins

Executive Director

Connecticut Trust

 For Historic Preservation

940 Whitney Avenue, Hamden                                    December 20, 1999