Date: Fri 13-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Illustration: C

Location: A9

Quick Words:

Touring-Past-Mitchell-Goodrich

Full Text:

(release of "Touring Newtown's Past" & prev of Colonial high tea, 9/13/96)

The First Stop For "Touring Newtown's Past" Is A Colonial High Tea

(with photos)

By Andrea Zimmermann

During the 1820s a literary accomplishment in Newtown would have been

celebrated in a fashion befitting the intellectual crowd - something special

but not flashy. A high tea, perhaps.

It is in this manner that the publication of Mary Mitchell and Al Goodrich's

latest book, Touring Newtown's Past: The Settlement and Architecture of an Old

Connecticut Town , will be heralded on September 15, from 2 to 5 pm, at the

Matthew Curtiss House, at 44 Main Street in Newtown. The authors will be

available at the free public tea to sign copies of their book, which

chronicles the oldest homes in town and offers detailed walking and driving

tours past 105 of the pre-1826 homes.

"Historically, that kind of thing happened, people came together. It's in that

spirit," said Cosmo Civale, who, along with his wife, Sheila, are organizing

and hosting the Newtown Historical Society's free event. "I was so excited to

do this because both Mary and Al are such wonderful people. And they worked so

hard on this book."

Mr Civale remembered meeting Mary when he went to one of his first events at

the Matthew Curtiss House. They walked out together into a winter night and

Mary described the project to him.

"I got such a wonderful feeling about what they were doing. It was so

important to her," said Mr Civale. "So, we thought this [Colonial high tea]

would be a great idea."

"There's a lot of excitement about this," agreed Mrs Civale. Both she and her

husband are involved in historical re-creations. They plan to wear costumes

from the era, and serve gingerbread and nutbread made from recipes found in

the Sarah Booth Cookbook. They also procured the recipe for the scones offered

at the Victorian Tea held during the Family Life Center's Christmas tour.

Mulled cider and non-alcoholic punch will also be served.

Penning Their Work

"I didn't have any idea of a book," said Mary, who has written four similar

books, including A Walk In Georgetown . She and Al collaborated on Newtown

Trails Book , and its two revised editions. It was quite by accident the two

discovered the opportunity for another joint project.

Mary had heard that a committee was trying to form a historic district and

volunteered to photograph all the houses involved. When she made the offer she

had not realized there were 93 homes, but kept to her word and completed the

project in the winter of 1988.

In 1993, she learned the historical society wanted to document and enter into

its computer information on the old homes in town. The group anticipated a

grant for a title researcher. Mary volunteered her talents on this second

project because she thought photographs might facilitate the title search.

"But when I finished [photographing the 220 homes], the grant from the state

fell through," said Mary. "We had all these pictures taken just as a record,

not without any thought of light, texture, or composition... So I thought of a

book and asked Al if he would be interested in helping to do the darkroom

work."

The authors got their basic information from a variety of sources. Historical

society member Peggy Gross had wanted to create tour leaflets of old homes in

town but never had the time to do it. She did, however, ask the staff of the

assessor's office to compile a list of older homes when time permitted.

Although there were more than 200 listings, Mary noticed some important older

homes such as 74 Main Street and 95 Boggs Hill Road were not mentioned.

"We were particularly anxious to have every one we could. So it was just a

matter of driving around and photographing. We found some that surprised us -

those that looked pre-1826. And we added another dozen [for a total of] 297,"

said Al, who also referred to a list developed by Town Historian Dan Cruson.

Some detective work was necessary to find the homes on the assessor's list

because, although streets were mentioned, house numbers were not assigned

until modern times.

The number of houses included in the book had to be "winnowed down" to 105

because of page limitations specified in the book contract, said Mary. These

homes, along with 25 interior shots, appear in Touring Newtown's Past .

In May of 1995, Mary acquired a card file of old Newtown homes that was

started by the late Mary Jackson of Berkshire Road in the 1960s and expanded

by Margaret Hall to include a total of 132 homes.

"It was a packet of three-by-five cards, [and information on] some paper

napkins and the back of invitations - all in chronological order. Each gave

the date of a house, whether it appeared on the 1854 map, a list of former

owners, and a little `gossip,'" said Mary. "If there was a really old house

and Mrs Hall got into it, she described exactly what she saw there - a big

fire place, the hardware, post and beam... I could tell by the way it was

written if she got her information by phone or by letter. She documented all

her sources."

The dates of only twenty homes could be documented; the others were recorded

in the book as "circa." At times, the authors found they had as many as three

different dates for a home - one from the assessor's information, one from the

current homeowners, and one from Margaret Hall's list - which varied as much

as 100 years. Dan Cruson tackled the task of deciding which date to use, along

with what homes to include; the authors were concerned about offending someone

through omission. Mr Cruson also reviewed the entire text for accuracy.

Some of the homes Mary had photographed before the concept of a book developed

needed to be re-shot. Lighting was important.

"And we wanted to get the chimney against the sky. Up to the time of the

Revolution, the chimney was always in the center of the house over the front

door," said Mary. "At the same time, the roof line was steep, and the windows

were small and usually regularly placed in relationship to the front door.

This was because of the post and beam construction inside."

Al found two homes particularly difficult to photograph. Number 20 Taunton

Hill Road, a charcoal grey house, and 1 Pole Bridge Road, a reddish-brown

home, each had to be photographed five times before the clapboard and other

details could be discerned in the prints.

In the early, 1800s Greek Revival began to affect building forms in Newtown.

In the 1820s, Colonial and Greek Revival style were built contemporaneously

but in different parts of town, said Mary. Farmers continued to build homes as

their forefathers had; others who were more sophisticated and could easily

travel to coastal towns followed the new trends in design.

Mary sought to trace the development of the town and document how many of the

older houses were homesteads and who the residents were. She further

researched the townspeople using material in the library's genealogy

collection.

When she found out the text for the book had to be sent to the press on a

computer disk and in MicroSoft Word format, Mary decided she would learn to

use a computer.

"Here was a determined woman," said Al. "She was going to buy a computer and

learn to use it just to write this book."

Mapping The Tours

Two of the biggest challenges Al encountered were creating the inventory and

drawing the maps. They planned each tour to be about ninety minutes.

"When we decided we wanted to have driving maps in the book, the challenge was

then taking the more than 200 houses in town and deciding how we pick routes

to go by a very large percentage of them. Then we had to pick those [homes]

with the least alteration," said Al.

"We started with a map that showed every building lot in town. We colored them

depending on what time span they were in." The color-coding indicated four

periods: up to 1750; 1750 to the Revolutionary War; after the Revolution to

1800; and 1800-1826.

An anonymous donation of $2,000 permitted the authors to expand the book to a

maximum of 128 pages, and use two colors on the pull-out maps to identify the

tour road and distinguish the houses pictured in the book.

The team's curiosity about the interiors of the buildings opened up another

dimension for investigation. They found basement beams made from logs with

bark still attached, and tremendous stone eight-foot-long fireplaces rising

through the center of the homes. Al created a glossary of terms relating to

the structures of the time and made detailed sketches for the book.

"It took an engineer's approach," said Mary. "That was one of Al's great

contributions - he was an engineer and thought that way."

Although some homeowners had altered their houses, Mary and Al found it

fascinating to encounter those who had, instead, chosen to adapt to the house.

They were particularly impressed by Dot Winblad, who owns a 1788 home on

Blackman Road.

"In my house" she told the authors, "people have laughed, lived, loved and

died, two centuries of humanity passing through here. I feel my house is part

of the town's landscape. I love it and want to keep it up for the generations

to come."

Like so many of the residents of old homes, Mary wants to continue preserving

Newtown's history. Now that the book is published, she will create a file on

each of the homes she researched. The author hopes this will be the seed of a

repository for historical information others may build on in years to come.

Touring Newtown's Past: The Settlement and Architecture of an Old Connecticut

Town will be available at the Colonial high tea for $22. It is also available

at The Book Review and by mail from the Newtown Historical Society at an

additional cost of $3 (shipping and handling). Proceeds from the sale of the

book will benefit the society. To order a book by mail or for more information

on the Colonial high tea, call 426-5937.