Date: Fri 22-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLK

Illustration: C

Location: C1

Quick Words:

home-tour-Rectory-Hertberg

Full Text:

(histories of homes on 1996 Holiday Festival walking tour, 11/22/96)

Home Tour Histories

(with photos)

The Family Life Center's 11th annual Holiday Festival will take place Sunday,

December 8, from 10 am to 5 pm. Centered around Main Street and attracting

nearly 1,500 visitors each year with an antiques show and sale, a Victorian

Tea, a crafts show and sale and live entertainment throughout the day, one of

the Festival's perennial favorites is its historic homes walking tour.

The walking tour features selected Main Street-area homes and buildings

decorated for the holidays, including Trinity Church, the Matthew Curtiss

House and the offices of the Bee Publishing Company.

Following are histories on each of the four private residences that will also

be open for the tour this year. The programs for this year's tour, to be

handed out the day of, will include line drawings of each building by Newtown

resident Kim Proctor.

Home of Kathleen and Richard Adams-Shepherd (Trinity Rectory), 64 Main Street.

This wood frame dwelling is described as a Victorian bracketed house. It is

thought to have been built in 1867 for Edward Starr, who ran a grocery store

on the west side of Main Street directly across from the Matthew Curtiss

House. It is interesting to note that the original etched glass above the

front doors and in the panels to the dining room side door are in a star

motif.

The original house is believed to have been a four room over four, but shortly

after construction the dining room and a larger kitchen were added. When

built, the house contained at least four fireplaces, but with the introduction

of central heating, all but one were closed.

In later years the present kitchen was enlarged twice and completely remodeled

in the early 1980s. At that time pine flooring discovered under the kitchen

subfloors was restored. The sun room was added in the late 1950s.

Interesting architectural features include the newel post of the banister,

which is a solid piece of cherry wood; the double pocket doors which separate

the front parlors as well as the window and door moldings of these two rooms

and the porcelain doorknobs throughout the house.

In some of the closets original flooring of boards eight to ten inches wide

may be seen. Most of the beams in the attic are pegged. The backyard contains

a two-seater privy.

Around 1960, the house was willed to Trinity Episcopal Church by Curtis

Glover. The house has served as a home for Trinity's Rectors and their

families since then. It is currently the residence of Kathleen and Richard

Adams-Shepherd, and their two children, Sarah and Myles. The Adams-Shepherd

family and Trinity parishioners have spent considerable time renovating and

restoring the house, its outbuildings and gardens.

Holiday decorations for the Holiday Festival will be arranged by Trinity

parishioners Anne Marie DeLuccio and Ena Higgins, with help from Wendell

Stonaker of The Ridgefield General Store; antique furniture courtesy Tucker

Frey Antiques of Woodbury; and additional holiday greens provided by Newtown

Garden & Farm Stand. Additionally, the rectory will be decorated for Advent.

Musical selections will be performed by pianist Floyd Higgins.

Residence of Lindell Hertberg, 61 Main Street.

When Lindell and Bernie Hertberg learned 25 years ago that the old Holly House

Tavern was for sale, they decided they had to look at it. One of their

daughters, Holly, was only a baby and it was a classic case of home buyers

being lured to a house by its name.

Although the exact date this magnificent Federal style house was built is not

known, part of the molding is of the style used in the late 1700s, while other

parts are from the 1830s.

Research done by a previous owner, a Mr Zincavage, uncovered that the house

was built by Zibas Blackman, a descendent of the Blackmans who built Hillbrow.

In more recent times, the house was owned by members of the Budd family.

Originally the house was built as an inn, but it was not profitable due to

much competition in the area. The frame clapboard house has three chimneys,

four fireplaces and a gable roof.

There are also many distinctive features within the house. The windows around

the front door are typical of the Federal period. Inside is a spacious

entrance hall with pineapple wallpaper. Pineapples were the colonial symbol of

hospitality. Rumor has it there are scenes of Newtown hidden behind the walls

on the staircase.

From a library in the rear of the house, there is a fine view of the four-acre

property, which is rather typical of the original town plots in that it is

long and narrow and leading off Main Street.

The late Bernie Hertberg was a co-founder and director of the Family Life

Center for several years.

The home will be decorated by Florist on the Green owner Allen Hermansson.

Musical selections will be by harpist Pat Kendziorski.

Art and Wendy Fuller's home, 5 School House Hill Road.

Built in 1929, this farmhouse was a dream come true to George and Ivy Mayor.

George, a tool and dye maker by trade, built it himself assisted by his

father, father-in-law and various friends. This labor of love was also home to

the four growing Mayor children.

Ruth Liska, a Mayor daughter, recalls the house with fondness. She also

remembers crisp winter days when she, her sister and brothers would sled down

School House Hill from the monument to the McLachlan house.

Set high on a small hill, the Depression era home had a commanding view of

open fields, School House Hill - still a dirt road back then - and The

Boulevard.

Built solidly on a stone foundation, oak was used on the first floor while fir

covered the upstairs and the walls were made of plaster. Water supply may

originally have come from a well, but fairly early on they adopted town water.

George and his relatives also built the kitchen cabinets and the corner

cupboards, two of which are still around today.

Wide stairs ascend from the first floor to the second, and from the second to

the attic. Considered ample for the day was 30 amps for electricity, and the

plugs were in the middle of the wall rather than at floor level.

A grape arbor and vegetable garden were in use, and the presence of a chicken

coop on the property today suggests the family kept chickens.

A hay rake left behind suggests some other types of farming may have been done

on the property. Pear and peach trees grace the lot and at one time bees were

kept. All of this was done on one acre of land.

The home stayed in the Mayor family until 1984, when Art and Wendy Fuller

purchased it. The Fullers have done a number of renovations, including adding

shutters and railing to the spacious front porch. Important to them in

planning the addition was to keep the lines of the old farmhouse. The addition

added bedrooms and a bath, a family room, and back porch. A kitchen pantry was

made into a half-bath. The renovations have added space, but have not

detracted from the building's original form.

Lexington Gardens of Newtown will handle decorating duties for the Fuller

home.

Residence of Chuck and Jone Fulkerson, 8 Currituck Road.

The Fulkerson home was built in 1936 by Miss Rowena Keyes, a staff member of

Antiques magazine. The house, a faithful copy of an 18th Century saltbox, was

designed by architect Willis N. Mills of New York City. An addition, including

a master bedroom and attached garage, was added in the 1960s to the south side

of the house.

The house has a number of 19th Century original paintings and personal

possessions of the Fulkersons' Connecticut ancestors. Oil portraits of

Phillipp Simons and his infant son, Phillipp, Jr, eye each other from across

the living room. Great- great uncle Phillipp, Sr, was a Waterbury jeweler.

Over the living room mantel are two tiny watercolor portraits of

great-great-grandparents John and Eliza Freeman.

An eight-day Darrow shelf clock made in Bristol sits on the mantel above the

Civil War sword of Thomas R. Martin, a great grandfather and captain in the

5th New York Zouaves.

A pair of large photo/chalk portraits of Katherine and Leonard Meyer hang in

the dining room. Watercolors of local and regional scenes painted by Charles

hang in several rooms. Three of these watercolors have appeared in Reader's

Digest annual calendar, including the 1994 calendar cover depicting Main

Street, Newtown. A fourth, entitled "Jone's Garden, Newtown," will appear in

the 1997 calendar.

Chuck and Jone live in the home with their two children, Libby and Charley.

Holiday Festival decorations will be taken care of by Steck Nursery & Country

Barn in Bethel.