Date: Fri 03-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Historical-Society-garden-tour

Full Text:

Historic Home and Garden Tour Set For July 11

(with cuts)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

The fourth annual Historic Home and Garden Tour sponsored by the Newtown

Historical Society will be held on Saturday, July 11, from 11 am to 5 pm.

Tickets are $20 each and must be purchased in advance. They are available at

the Cyrenius H. Booth Library on Main Street.

Five landmark homes and gardens are featured on this year's tour.

14 Country Club Drive, Daniel and Carol Amaral: Built in 1718 by Abel Stilson

on what is now the corner of Elm Drive and Country Club Lane, this is one of

the best preserved old houses in Newtown. Mary Helen Eagen Amaral was born in

the house in 1904 and lived there until she died in 1993, three months before

her 90th birthday.

Built of post-and-beam construction, the house is a traditional saltbox that

faces south to capture the rays of the winter sun. Originally it was part of a

working farm; clustered around the house were sheds for carding wool, storing

tools, for butchering, salting and aging meats. Much of the acreage eventually

was sold to become part of Dickinson Park and the Newtown Country Club.

The house has three fireplaces; the cellar was dug around a huge granite rock

which became the hearth. The cellar steps are carved out of rock. The bake

oven has a cast iron door with a fanlike pattern that can be found in two

other houses, both in Sandy Hook, one built in 1762, the other in 1780. A book

written about the Amaral house is in the collection of the Connecticut

Historical Society in Hartford.

39 Deep Brook Road, Donald and Margaret Studley: Built in 1765, this house is

located in a very pastoral area surrounded by farmland about a mile from the

flagpole. A typical center-chimney colonial of post-and-beam construction, the

house has a 10-foot rear addition with palladian windows constructed in the

early 19th century, possibly by Abel Beers, and a larger addition constructed

for Northy and Lillian Jones in 1950. "Major Abe" (1777-1850) farmed 110 acres

and served as Newtown's selectman and representative to the state legislature.

Mr Jones was a gentleman farmer and executive who commuted to his job in New

York City.

Dr Thomas Draper bought the house and 90 acres in 1972; he sold the house and

its three surrounding acres to the Studleys in the mid-1980s. The property

includes flower gardens, a gazebo, and a 50-year-old concrete swimming pool

and pool house.

1 Orchard Hill Road, Tucker and Marilyn Frey: Nathaniel Nichols, who built

this house in 1731, was a baker. On the first floor was the family cooking

fireplace; the cellar held another fireplace with bake oven for his business.

Nathaniel's son Peter went into the wool-carding business. He became so

prominent that the property became known as Peter's Pitch. A captain in the

Revolutionary War, Pete Nichols became grand master of Newtown's first Masonic

lodge.

The house is a three-bay, asymmetrical, colonial dwelling with a central

chimney piercing its side-gabled roof. It has a one-story gable-roofed

addition but the exterior of the main house has been largely unaltered over

the years. The current owner is an antiques dealer whose business, Tucker Frey

Antiques, is located on South Main Street in Woodbury.

1 Academy Lane, Todd and Victoria Richardson: This house is one of two

colonial homes to sit on either side of Academy Lane at the crest of a rise

facing the curve of Currituck Road at the edge of Newtown's historic village

northern boundary. An 1856 map shows this property as owned by S.N. Sanford.

The house itself, according to the assessor's office, was built in 1897. Built

as a five-bay, central entrance colonial dwelling, the house was renovated in

1992. It features two chimneys in the center of its roof ridge, a two-story

addition, stone walls and gardens.

27 Main Street, John and Maureen Rohmer: The gardens of the Rohmer residence,

located between the Booth Library and the Meeting House, also will be open for

viewing. (The house was open on a previous tour.) Built in 1787, this was the

home of Judge William Edmond (1755-1838), a great-grandfather of town

benefactress Mary Elizabeth Hawley. The property includes the wood frame,

clapboarded house, with a later wing on the south side, and nineteenth century

barns in the rear. From the backyard, there is a stunning view of the

flagpole.

The tour will be held rain or shine.