Date: Fri 04-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

holiday-festival-house-tour

Full Text:

House Tour Highlights Annual Holiday Festival

(with line drawings)

The 13th annual Holiday Festival to benefit the Family Counseling Center will

take place on Sunday, December 6, from 10 am to 5 pm. Buses will run from 11

am to 5 pm between all festival sites.

In addition to the four historic homes on the tour, the Matthew Curtiss House,

The Newtown Bee and Trinity Church will be open for viewing. Other festival

events include a juried craft show, children's workshop, and New England Cafe

at the middle school; a Victorian tea room, antiques show, and artist-curated

exhibit of David Merrill's murals at Edmond Town Hall, and the Festival of

Trees at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library.

There will be musical performances in the Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall,

at the Newtown Meeting house, and caroling at various locations outdoors.

Tickets, available at the library, Newtown Middle School and Edmond Town Hall,

are required to get into most of the events. Pre-sale tickets are $12 for

adults; they will be $15 on Sunday. Senior and children's tickets are $8.

14 Main Street

As Christmas dawned in 1900, the sight of the house at 14 Main Street was "a

total ruin ... a heap of ashes, with the gaunt form of the central chimney

towering like a specter at the light of the dying fire." The family home of

First Selectman Levi C. Morris, "one of Newtown's most popular citizens," had

"burned to the ground in the short space of two hours."

Yet in under ten months, Mr Morris had commissioned and built another house on

the site: a "Classic Box" form of the Classical Revival style distinguished by

its hipped roof, two hipped dormers and the classically detailed front porch.

It was considered a technologically advanced design, with water supplied to

the house by gravity feed from a holding tank in the attic.

Visitors to the house experience a feeling of grandeur upon entering the large

reception hall complete with baby grand piano and a grand stairway. Today the

halls of this spacious, inviting house are filled with the laughter and music

of Keith and Sara Newell's four-year-old triplets. For the tour, the house has

been decorated by Newtown Florist. Pianists Nancy McMillan and Corey Gallata

will provide the musical program.

30 Mt Pleasant Road

A venerable antique of generous scale, this post-Revolutionary War colonial

originally was the Marcus Camp homestead. Slightly raised on its property, the

house projects a dignified appearance. A winding drive approaches the home and

passes some wonderful old white pines, a covered porch, two outside water

pumps and a step formerly used for mounting horses. Built in 1794, with a

massive central chimney, the house has had two additions, the most recent

probably about 100 years ago.

Owners Craig and Laurie Madaus have great plans for restoring the house to its

original beauty. The formal dining room, impressive in size, has a walk-in

stone fireplace with two beehive ovens. French doors open to the living room,

which features a handsome fireplace and a library alcove as well as exposed

hand-hewned beams, built-in cabinets and notable small-paned windows.

The house is best known for Dr Charles Peck who summered here for many years

before his death in 1927. Originally a prominent surgeon in New York City and

Assistant General Director of Surgery of the American Expeditionary Forces in

World War I, he gradually made Newtown his full-time residence. The house will

be decorated for the tour by Lexington Gardens; cellist Christopher Thibdeau

and classical guitarist Peter Obre will be providing the musical program.

2 The Old Road

This charming house once was the carriage house for the Marcus Camp homestead

at 30 Mt Pleasant Road. It sits just a stone's throw from the back of the main

house. Built in the late 18th century, the carriage house and barns were

subdivided from the homestead during the mid 1900s and became a private

residence.

An award-winning renovation took place during the 1980s using period

materials, many items found in the barn and shed and incorporating them into

the interior of the house. Inside are rustic and captivating rooms with random

width birdseye maple and oak floors, exposed hand-hewn beams, and old

moldings. A stable door found in the shed was restored and placed in its

original location inside the carriage house, where it now functions as a door

to the library. Wagon wheels found in the barn were sawed in half and used as

supports for the banister.

The grounds include a contemplation garden and a lounging deck, old stone

patio, interesting paths and perennial flower beds.

The interior will be decorated by Newtown Country Mill & Garden Center.

Newtown Farm and Garden Center will dress the exterior of the carriage house,

barn and outbuildings in holiday greens. Pianists Melissa Thompson and Barbara

Letson, and flutist Sarah Letson will entertain.

10 Currituck Road

This Gambrel-roofed, story-and-a-half house owned by John and Jennifer

Shannon, is traditionally dated to 1812; its Federal-style appointments, such

as the gable-roofed front porch, would bear out this date. There is some deed

evidence, however, that a house stood on the site as early as the 1780s. The

house was extensively renovated by Eli Bennet in 1848, and renovated again in

1966. A hand-painted mural by a local artist graces the foyer walls.

In the late 1930s, the house was acquired by Clarence Naramore, the proprietor

of the Sunset Tavern which was located across the street. The popularity of

the tavern as an overnight facility had increased to the point that Mr

Naramore needed more rooms, so after purchasing the house he opened it as the

Sunset Tavern Guest House. It is likely that the south addition was

constructed at this time. The Sunset Tavern closed in 1941 and the guest house

reverted to a private residence.

The house will be decorated by Steck's Nursery & Country Barn. Violinists

Spencer Swain and Morgan Eve Swain, and cellist Christopher Thibdeau will

provide a musical program.