Homes And Gardens Tour Will Return Saturday, Rain Or Shine

By Shannon Hicks

Newtown Historical Society is inviting the public to spend time exploring some of the town’s finest homes and gardens this weekend. On Saturday from 11 am until 4:30 pm, rain or shine, the historical society will offer its 2007 Homes & Gardens Tour.

This year’s event — returning this season after a one-year hiatus last summer — includes seven houses and their magnificent gardens as well as two hidden gardens on Main Street. Also, the art and photography of seven local artists will be displayed in the historic barn surrounded by gardens at The Budd House; the first floor of the historic Budd House will be part of this year’s tour, too.

Shane and George Miller are only the fourth owners of the historic Budd House, at 50 Main Street. With its mansard roof (having two slopes on all four sides, with the lower slope almost vertical and the upper almost horizontal), it is an outstanding example of the Empire style

The home was built in 1869 and was then the residence of Henry Beers Glover, a founder and the first Treasurer of Newtown Savings Bank. The house remained in the Glover family for more than 100 years.

The arrangement of the rooms within the house reveals a great deal about the lifestyle of an upper-middle-class Victorian residence. The main rooms in the front of the house were for the family, while the rear rooms were for the servants. The entrance hall has outer and inner doors to prevent drafts, and there is elaborate hardware and woodwork here as well as throughout the house.

There are two parlors, one on either side of the foyer. Today the north parlor is used as a den, and the south parlor is the living room, which has the original marble fireplace and above it a mirror that has been there since the house was built. The Millers have added a beautiful Georgian chandelier to the home.

An impressive modern kitchen that was added by the previous owner, who held cooking classes here. The original kitchen was in the basement, where the cooking fireplace still exists.

Henry Glover’s daughter Mary married Attorney William Beecher, a town clerk and Judge of Probate. Mary and William then had a daughter, Florence, who married Stephen Budd. Florence Budd inherited the house after the death of her parents, and she lived there until her death in 1977. It is Mrs Budd’s name that local residents refer to when they call the house The Budd House

Behind the house is a barn, surrounded by George Miller’s gardens. Originally this was called “Roadside Farm” and Stephen Budd bred horses there. The barn has been completely renovated by the Millers, who use the main floor as a gathering place; Mr Miller uses the lower level as something of a potting shed, keeping much of his gardening supplies there.

On Saturday, the barn’s main floor will serve as a gallery when the work of seven Newtown artists is presented. Paintings and photography by Pat Barkman, Robert Berthier, Betty Christensen, Frank Gardner, Angela Hare, Dick McEvoy, and Ruth Newquist.

Tax records indicate that three acres with “premises and appurtances” at what is today 47 Botsford Hill Road were sold to Ebenezer Crofut in 1801 for $60. In 1811 the property was sold to Ebenezer Beers, Jr, as a dwelling house and barn with three acres. The homestead is a center chimney Colonial built circa 1804. Today the property is home to Kris Atwood, who has lived there since 1978. She has maintained the home, in 1983 put on a 17- by 30-foot addition using 200-year old doors and woodwork duplicated to match the old, and has transformed the acreage surrounding the home into something of an arboretum.

Ms Atwood’s gardens include more than 150 conifers, dozens of ornamental grasses, heaths, heathers, Japanese maples, Korean lilacs, daylilies, and rare and usual trees seldom seen in Connecticut. Many of the plants are labeled with discreet metal signs and despite being called “dwarf” conifers, they have grown to specimen size, Ms Atwood points out.

There is a greenhouse, a pergola, and a pair of potting sheds.

“There’s nothing that’s usual in these gardens,” Ms Atwood said recently. “There are a lot of plants and shrubs that you’ll only normally find in an arboretum.” Her favorite tree, and the most unusual on the property, is Picea Pungens “Lemonade,” a spruce whose new growth comes out bright yellow before changing to lime green and then blue-green.

“I like different colors and plants,” she said. “This is definitely an all-season garden. There’s always some color out here.”

Indoors, the first floor bathroom has the home’s original clawfoot tub, the keeping room has a beehive oven “that’s larger than anything you’ll see at Sturbridge Village,” promises Ms Atwood, and the tap room features a bar and grill adapted from The Wayside Inn’s in Sudbury, Mass.

Before building their home at 36 Butterfield Road, Margareta and Philip Kotch rented a house on Hanover Road.

“We thought we wanted to buy an old New England house, but then we looked at one and really didn’t like it,” Mrs Kotch said. “Then Mr Chase, our realtor, showed us this piece of land and we had a brand-new idea.”

That idea turned into a brand-new home back in 1974, after the couple designed their home with Philip’s cousin Richard Zinn… who, coincidentally, had done the house at 38 Butterfield, adjacent to the property purchased by the Kotches.

They came up with a house that has a full foyer and entryway, a spiral staircase linking the formal living room to the master bedroom — a very 1970s element that is rarely used now — three bedrooms, a study (which used to be the guest bedroom), an informal gathering/family room, an open patio, and an enclosed porch the couple refers to as The Cardiff Room.

“The is where we live now,” Mrs Kotch said. The room gets its name from the hometown of their son, who lives in Cardiff, Calif. The Kotches created the room to give them a sweeping view of the backyard in which they both love to spend time gardening. The room offers a wicker loveseat, two very comfortable looking wicker armchairs, and a glass-top table with seating for four more people. A tile floor keeps it cool in the summer, and a ceiling fans keeps the breeze moving in the hot weather and warm air moving during the cooler months.

The home’s entryway features a mural by the Brookfield artist Diane Voyentcie; it’s one of two in the home (the second can be found in the first floor bathroom). The foyer mural offers a traditional New England scene complete with crocuses, cows, sheep, the hint of the moon and even Lake Lillinonah.

In addition to the properties profiled here, the tour will include four additional properties and three gardens (including those on the Miller property) that were featured in last week’s Newtown Bee. These include the mid-19th Century home of Lillian and Albert Minck at 44 Great Hill Road; Cristina and Derek Arnold’s antique farmhouse at 34 Taunton Hill Road, which was originally owned and built by David Sherman in 1768 and has recently undergone major renovations that have updated the home yet kept its integrity; Lilleba Peterson and Dave Luessenhop’s home at 8 Valley View Road, which they designed and built 45 years ago; and Marcia and Lawrence Cavanaugh’s home, built just nine years ago at 42 Greenleaf Farms Road.

Gardens are all within walking distance of each other. In addition to the Millers’ there is a terraced garden behind the home of Renee and Kevin McManus at 35 Main Street and the gardens and greenhouses of Brid Craddock and Harvey Pessin at 59 Main Street.

This is a self-guided tour. Tickets are $20 each and are limited to avoid overcrowding. Checks should be sent to Newtown Historical Society Tour, PO Box 189, Newtown CT 06470, before June 15. Be sure to include name, address and telephone number.

Advance tickets can also be obtained at Cyrenius H. Booth Library, Drug Center Pharmacy, and The Red Garage.

Remaining tickets will sold the day of the tour, between 10 am and 12:30 pm at the Matthew Curtiss House, 44 Main Street. Call 426-5937 for more information.

The proceeds from this tour benefit Newtown Historical Society and the Matthew Curtiss House Museum.