Preserving history is often an expensive effort in a world where society must weigh the costs against the rewards. While most people would agree that preserving our historic buildings is a noble idea, not everyone is willing to spend the money it takes to accomplish the task. In an ideal world, the cost of restoration would never exceed the cost of demolition and replacement. But anyone who has ever restored and maintained an older building realizes that is seldom the case.
Luckily, there are state and federal programs that can provide municipalities and homeowners with various grants and low-cost loans to aid in the preservation and restoration of historic property. Grants come in all shapes and sizes, and many have strict limitations on how the funds are used. If one meets the requirements and follows the rules, there is no obligation to repay; however, many grants require matching funds – in other words, for every dollar obtained through a grant, the municipality or homeowner must supply another dollar of its own.
Some of these same programs also supply municipalities with grant monies that can be used for research and education that pertain to preservation. Most of these also require matching funds, and when a municipal government is involved, that means that the taxpayers of that community will be asked to include those funds in the town budget, which as we all know, is not always an easy ask given the other necessary items that town government is required to pay for.
In 2022, the Town of Easton enacted a demolition delay ordinance that gives the town up to ninety days to either dissuade the owner from demolishing his historic building, or to at least fully document and inventory the property before the building is lost. As part of that legislation, the Historic Review Committee was established to oversee those delays. https://ecode360.com/EA2974/laws/LF2073360.pdf
While researching grants to fund updating of the nearly 30-year-old Historic Resources Inventory (HRI) that Easton uses to determine whether a property is subject to a demolition delay, the committee discovered that any town in Connecticut that is designated as a Certified Local Government (CLG) is eligible to apply for and receive non-matching grants for such projects. In addition, CLG towns go to the front of the line when the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is issuing grants. Currently, only about 50 out of 169 towns and cities in Connecticut have been designated with CLG status, giving them a significant advantage when applying for funds for local preservation efforts. The current Easton HRI can be viewed here – FYI, depending on the speed of your internet connection, this takes a few seconds to load: https://collections.ctdigitalarchive.org/node/18034.
Further research showed that being certified as a CLG opens several additional avenues for funding from the National Park Service – federal funding that CLG’s are eligible for even when state funding has been exhausted. Again, these are non-matching grants, which means that projects funded with those monies wouldn’t require any additional local taxpayer dollars.
The committee then contacted SHPO and was provided with a comprehensive 22-page packet of information and requirements to become a CLG. Among those requirements was the need to expand the committee to include members with specific expertise in several areas of historic and architectural knowledge. That was done last spring when the town voted to accept an amended Demolition Delay Ordinance to include the conversion and expansion of the committee into a commission – renaming it the Historic Preservation Review Commission (HPRC), while also including the necessary language in the ordinance that would allow the town to proceed with its application to become a CLG. The changes made were all specific to the National Park Service’s requirements for eligibility to receive federal funding.
That left the new commission with one major hurdle – to come up with either a designated Local Historic District or at least one property that could be designated as a Local Historic Property (LHP). Having at least one district or LHP is a requirement to earn CLG status. Establishing a Local Historic District is a long and tedious process, and it is usually initiated by owners of property within a proposed district.
The commission instead decided that designating a building to become an LHP was the better option. As three of the commission members are also on the Board of Directors at the Historical Society of Easton, they discussed the possibility of applying for an LHP designation for the Adams Schoolhouse, but after much discussion, they thought a more appropriate building might be one that the town owned – a building that could also qualify for non-matching grants for future projects that involved preservation.
The building that came to mind was the 1937 Town Hall. It had already been expanded twice, and those additions were totally in keeping with the original design. The commission had recently been consulted about needed repair work on the chimney stack, and it had already provided the selectmen with historical context and guidance, so it was obvious that the Town remained dedicated to maintaining the same uniform style of architecture as the building ages and requires repairs and alterations. The building also takes up a great deal of the land it sits on, so future changes would likely be minimal, making it both easy and practical to keep the same design scheme.
Easton was much later in building its own town hall than most area towns. In addition, our building was largely funded by two private benefactors, making it even more special. Additionally, the architect, Frederick Dixon, was the first officially appointed Connecticut State Architect, making any work of his worth preserving. You can read the comprehensive report created by HPRC member Elizabeth Boyce here: https://www.eastonct.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3071/f/pages/the_history_of_eastons_town_hall_0.pdf
Both the State of Connecticut, our own Planning and Zoning Commission, and Easton’s Board of Selectmen have already approved the HPRC’s recommendation to designate the Town Hall as an LHP. The Historical Society of Easton has also voiced its approval of this proposed designation. In approving this, there will be absolutely no cost to the taxpayers of Easton, and the only restrictions on alterations and additions to the building involve the exterior façade which must be reviewed and approved by the Historic Preservation Review Commission as being in keeping with the original design. Any interior improvements and alterations remain totally under the control and supervision of the Board of Selectmen and the Building Department and are not subject to review by the HPRC.
Approving the ordinance that establishes the Town Hall as an LHP will be one of the final steps in the process for Easton becoming a CLG and opening the door to a new source of funding that will help preserve Easton’s history. With this knowledge, please exercise your right to vote on May 6th, and hopefully, you will choose to support the designation of Easton’s Town Hall as a Local Historic Property.
