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Historic Newtown Home To Be Featured On HGTV

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Historic Newtown Home To Be Featured On HGTV

By Nancy K. Crevier

It may have looked as though Mike and Pam Davis of 25 Sherman Street in Sandy Hook had taken home video to a higher level on Wednesday, April 5, but the entourage following them through their historic home was actually High Noon Productions out of Centennial, Colo., filming an episode of the popular Home and Garden Television program, If Walls Could Talk.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Mr Davis, admitting that his first reaction was more reserved. His wife thought it would be a lot of fun, though, and on a chilly spring morning, they graciously opened their home to the film crew.

If Walls Could Talk features homes across the country on its weekly half-hour program, focusing this year on homeowners who have made unusual discoveries in their homes. Historic documents, a powder horn from the era of Davy Crockett and photographic negatives of 1930s film stars are some of the treasures unearthed by the inquisitive crew. The Sherman Street house holds its own secrets, some of which were unearthed by Town Historian Dan Cruson and an archeological crew in the fall of 2004. The family discovered other bits of history as they poked about the property they purchased nine years ago.

The house was built around 1784 by Cato Freedom, also known as Cato Platt and Cato Freeman, a former slave of the Platt family, who lived on property nearby. A kitchen wing was probably added ten years after the original structure was erected. Cato Freedom lived in the house with his family, and three generations subsequently inhabited the home until it was sold in 1887 to a family of European descent.

The crawlspace beneath the original structure, barely five feet high, houses a stone beehive oven, indicating that the Freedom family may have used it as a dwelling space during the construction of the house, said Mr Cruson, who was on site during filming as a historical consultant. One of the discoveries that made the Davises’ home attractive to HGTV is to be found on that beehive oven. To the untrained eye, the “x” scrawled on the front of the fireplace could have gone unnoticed; but research from experts on black history in the United States inspired Mr Cruson to seek what is known as a “spirit mark” when he was invited to explore the home two years ago.

“We never would have found it without Dan,” said Mr Davis. The “x” is subtle, one line longer than the other and ending in a very faint circle. “It’s what is called a cosmogram, a mark used in West Africa, in the Congo area, to mark ceremonial objects,” explained Mr Cruson. It is thought that the mark was placed in homes inhabited by those of African descent to draw friendly ancestral spirits who lived “beneath the water, as they said,” Mr Cruson added. Whether Cato Freedom scraped the mark there due to belief or simply superstition may never be known.

The spirit mark appears on another artifact discovered by Mr Davis in the crawl space below the kitchen. Cradling the bit of history gently in his hands, Mr Davis displayed a surprisingly intact leather shoe, more than likely one that was owned by the home’s original owner and concealed beneath the kitchen. A “concealment shoe” was a European custom thought to protect a home and those who lived in it. Reflecting Cato Freedom’s merging of his African roots and his American upbringing, the shoe bears a spirit mark etched on the side, a symbol that the Davises puzzled over until Mr Cruson clarified it to them. “Mike actually just put the shoe aside when he first found it,” Mrs Davis said. “When Dan [Cruson] came over to do the dig, he had it sent out and dated.”

High Noon Production’s producer Kathleen Boland smoothly guided the Davises in and out, around and beneath their home, unfolding the story of Cato Freedom and painting a picture of the love and involvement the Davises feel for their home. As cameraman Jim O’Halloran checked the lighting and patiently waited for noise distractions — the family guinea hens frequently found it necessary to add their vocals to the background — to abate, Ms Boland posed questions to Mr and Mrs Davis designed to flesh out the story being told.

Mike and Pam Davis were unaware of the history behind the house when they bought it in 1997. “I walked in here and I fell in love. It’s so sweet. It’s on this gorgeous street where you can step back in time,” said Mrs Davis, as the camera rolled.

“It was everything we were looking for,” added Mr Davis. It wasn’t until a neighbor passing by hinted at the home’s place in the annals of Newtown history and they picked up Mr Cruson’s book Newtown’s Slaves that they began to connect the artifacts and odd debris on the property to the Cato Freedom family. Mr Cruson’s 2004 dig only added to the excitement they felt for their homestead.

After the eight hours of filming wrapped up, Mrs Davis commented, “It was fun seeing how the process went to do the show. For instance, it took ten takes of us just walking into the basement to get it right. I can’t believe it, but I think the whole thing will boil down to about five minutes of air time.” The cablecast date is unknown at this time.

At least, she said, knowing the house was going to be filmed for national television finally motivated them to do some of the repairs they had been meaning to get around to doing. “We were so nervous, but everyone was so nice and laid back,” she added. “About five times [before HGTV set the date] we thought, ‘Let’s cancel; we can’t do this!’ You start looking around and seeing everything that needs doing.”

Just as they had in real life, the Davises’ children, Meaghan, 11, Michael, 9, and Matthew, 7, re-enacted finding artifacts as they dug around the yard. Besides the shoe and the spirit mark, other remnants of the Cato Freedom family come to the surface frequently. “We have found things like tools and metal work,” remarked Mrs Davis. “Cato’s son was a cooper. We have found horseshoes, handmade nails, ceramic pieces and things like that. Dan Cruson shuddered when he saw how we just dig away at the yard!”

Said Mrs Davis, “It’s a good feeling to know the history of the house.”

Mr Davis echoed her sentiments, and said, “You can name a person who built it and he is such a fascinating person. Plus there are remnants left behind of that person. It feels like you’re the caretaker of the house.”

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