Date: Fri 04-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Historical-Society-survey

Full Text:

Historical Society Seeks Funds For Local Survey

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The Newtown Historical Society will ask the Board of Selectmen Monday night

for $5,000 in matching funds toward a federal grant which will underwrite a

survey of the town's approximately 250 pre-1825 houses.

"This is a highly competitive grant program," said Newtown Historical Society

President Sallie Meffert. "Newtown and Easton are the only towns in

Connecticut to be granted any funds for this type of project this year."

The matching funds are needed under the terms of a $5,000 US Department of the

Interior grant awarded recently to Newtown by the Connecticut Historical

Commission. The $10,000 in combined local and state/federal funds will be used

to pay for a state-certified researcher who will "identify, verify and

inventory" pre-1825 houses, places and public buildings so that they can be

placed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

"Old houses are a vanishing resource," members of the Historical Society's

Architectural Survey Committee said in a letter which was sent to the Board of

Selectmen this week. "Documentation is needed now, while Newtown still has one

of the largest numbers (of these houses) in the state, to help prevent the

destruction of architectually valuable and historic buildings."

The proposal came before the selectmen at a meeting last month but was tabled

until Monday night to give the historical society time to assemble more

information about the grant. In the meantime, the historical society created

the architectural survey committee to oversee implementation of the grant. The

committee's members include Mae Schmidle, committee chairperson/coordinator;

Sallie Meffert, president of the Newtown Historical Society; Dan Cruson, town

historian' Kristina Atwood, a historical society member who is the grant

co-author and project manager; architects John Madzula and Barnes Reed,

Attorney Anne Ragusa, and Tammara McMahon, a certified public accountant.

In its written form, the survey will be useful to the entire town, the

committee said.

"No centralized, townwide effort by professionals has ever been undertaken,"

Sallie Meffert explained. "The tax assessor's office does not have reliable

construction date information for many of the pre-1825 houses. Town boards and

commissions - such as Planning and Zoning, Building, Conservation and the town

planner - will be able to use the information in the survey. It will also

become part of the state's old house survey and will be used by the Newtown

Historical Society for its continuing education and public service programs."

Mae Schmidle said the survey would help stimulate the local economy by

promoting tourism and would enhance the historic stature of Newtown as a

colonial community not just in Connecticut but in New England as well. It also

would promote historical education within the community and the local schools,

and would "protect, promote and preserve our wonderful heritage and the

quality of life we so cherish," she said.

Even before the grant was awarded, members of the local historical society

were attempting to do an informal survey. The society mailed a questionnaire

and survey to the owners of homes which are believed to pre-date 1825. Society

members Mary Mitchell and Al Goodrich photographed the exterior views of more

than 265 houses and other buildings for a book, The Old Houses of Newtown,

which they are writing.

"Under terms of the grant, a state-certified researcher must be used to do the

survey," Mrs Schmidle said. "A typically qualified title searcher cannot do

the job. A legal notice is being published in this week's Bee to solicit

proposals to do the survey."

The state estimates it will cost about $50 per house to complete the survey.

If 250 houses are included, the total cost would increase to at least $12,500.

Anything over $10,000 would have to be underwritten by the historical society,

by individual property owners or other sources, Mrs Schmidle said.

"Under terms of the grant, the survey must be completed by May 1996," she

said. "The first deadline for quarterly progress reports has already been

passed. The historical society is working against a deadline and does not have

the time that would be required if it had to raise the money itself through

fundraising."

It is appropriate, Mrs Meffert said, that the town contribute the $5,000 in

matching funds, at a cost of about 25 cents per resident or $1.25 for each of

the 4,000 property owners.

"Since the project is primarily for the benefit of the entire town of Newtown,

matching funds would be a sincere demonstration of town commitment and

support," she said.