Sunshine And Secret Gardens Greet Visitors On Ninth Annual Historical Society Tour

By Shannon Hicks

For its ninth annual Historic Homes & Secret Gardens Tour, Newtown Historical Society could not have planned for a better day weatherwise. After an overcast and even rainy Friday, the sun came back out on Saturday, there was a light breeze, and the temperatures were perfect for those who were interested in participating in an annual event that has become one of the year’s biggest fundraisers for the society. For six hours the public was welcomed behind homes and into the front doors of dwellings that are only seen from the road the rest of the year.

“We’re so happy, it’s an absolutely perfect day,” said Michael Meffert who, along with his wife Sallie, was staffing the ticket table at the historical society’s headquarters, the Matthew Curtiss House. The Mefferts were able to sit at a card table set up on the property’s front lawn, greeting tourgoers while enjoying the weekend’s wonderful weather.

Co-chairmen Sallie Meffert and Jo-Ann Scebold arranged for four private homes and four gardens to be open for this year’s event. A capacity crowd made this year “a record year,” Ms Scebold confirmed this week, visiting the homes in Newtown and Sandy Hook and the gardens on Main Street in Newtown.

The homes this year included Holly Haven, the home at 1 Poorhouse Road (thought to be the oldest house in Newtown), which is currently owned by Dr and Mrs Stephen Herman; the home at 2 Thunder Ridge Road, which was first a 1706 cider mill that was converted into rustic living quarters for a Curtis family member, where Kim and Simon Charles currently reside; and 90 Great Ring Road in Sandy Hook, where Mr and Mrs Arthur Hunter call their home a work in progress.

A late addition to the tour was another Sandy Hook home. The circa 1824 one-and-a-half-story house at 21 Chestnut Road owned by Rose and Jeffrey Crofutt was open for visitors to admire the beauty of the old but also the wonderful home that has undergone a number of restorations and renovations since the Crofutts took residence in 1985… including the first installation of an indoor bathroom in the home’s history.

While cars were needed to take the whole tour, the four gardens on Main Street were within walking distance of each other. The gardens behind Matthew Curtiss House were open, and master gardener Brid Craddock discussed her plans for the property’s plantings. The gardens at 49, 50, and 53 Main Street were also open to the public.

“The tour was a tremendous success,” Ms Scebold said this week. “The beautiful weather, in addition to the outstanding properties, were all factors. Ticket sales were record breaking [and] the perfect weather certainly helped. What a blessing!”

Property owners reported people were waiting to meet them and visit their homes at the top of the hour.

“The four homes on the tour were just magnificent and the Matthew Curtiss House never looked better,” she added. “The fact that Newtown has remained a farming community for so many years has really allowed us to preserve our town’s history in a way no other Fairfield County city or town has been able to do.

“Three of the homes on the tour, including the Matthew Curtiss House, were pre-Revolutionary. One can only imagine the richness of the combined history of these properties,” Ms Scebold continued.

The two women were so on top of their game plan this year that when one house had to be pulled from the tour due to a medical emergency one week before the event, Ms Scebold was able to add a different historic house to the driving tour and update the maps and descriptions in time to greet participants on Saturday morning.

Volunteers greeted visitors at each home and garden, answering questions and offering information on the history of a home or the background of a garden. Some of the younger volunteers had signed on to help on Saturday through Newtown Youth Services, while others were members of Newtown Historical Society.

 “Most homeowners decided to remain at their property, which allowed visitors to meet them during the course of the day,” Ms Scebold said. “It was also nice for participants that this was a limited tour.”

In organizing the tour, Newtown Historical Society promised homeowners that the number of people who would be visiting their homes last weekend would be limited. Ticket holders knew they had a set time to be in and out of the homes, and were able to visit the homes and gardens in any order they selected. The historical society provided each ticket holder with a map, directions to each home, shot descriptions of each home, and a suggested driving tour, but the route followed was left up to the participants.

At the conclusion of the house tour the day’s volunteers, organizers and homeowners gathered at Matthew Curtiss House for a reception. Past Newtown Historical Society President Peg Gross provided the refreshments, and Sallie Meffert was presented with an engraved pewter bowl from the historical society. Mrs Meffert has been the chairman for the historical society’s homes and gardens tour since its inception nine years ago. She and her husband Mike will be moving to Virginia shortly. The gift was a thank you to Mrs Meffert for more than a dozen years of volunteer work and devotion to Newtown Historical Society.