Coming to you, hot off the press, is the Fall 2015 Guilford Preservation Alliance Newsletter. It is available here on our website, and has also been mailed to our members. The newsletter replaces the annual appeal letter sent out in recent years. We hope you enjoy reading our news in this format, and we hope you will consider donating generously to the work we do by renewing your membership and possibly adding a designated gift as well.
Photo by Ellen Ebert
Where to go, what to see, where to shop, where to eat? Visitors and residents no longer need ask these questions about Guilford. The answers are keystrokes away (visitguilfordct.com) at the Visitor Information Kiosk and on their home computers and other devices, thanks to three years of work by the Guilford Preservation Alliance (GPA).
The kiosk, which goes live on Friday, Sept. 18, offers residents and tourists a new electronic resource to learn nearly everything they want to know about Guilford, from its historic museums, arts, and recreation to local shopping and dining. Using its events calendar, visitors can find out months in advance what there is to see and do in town and plan accordingly. [Read more…]
The Guilford Preservation Alliance (GPA) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2015 GPA awards given to individuals and groups that have demonstrated a commitment to preserve and protect the built and the natural heritage of Guilford.
This year, the GPA recognizes the work done on several buildings in town. Jonathan Wuerth, a general contractor and master builder, will receive an award for his work in restoring and and preserving many homes and barns along the shoreline and for his work in saving buildings slated for demolition. In addition, Eamon Roche and Sarah Blanton will receive an Award of Merit for restoration of their home on Broad St., and Terry Wall, for work on his North Guilford barn built around 1783.
GPA will also honor the work done by the Guilford Garden Club for the creation of a park surrounding the Rollin Woodruff homestead, and the 375th Anniversary Celebration Committee for providing events, activities, and programs that focused on the town’s heritage. One of the programs was the Civil War Reenactment, and GPA recognizes Edie Brown for her part in planning and carrying out this event, and Tracy Tomaselli, for her genealogical research on the soldiers who fought from Guilford in the Civil War. [Read more…]
The Visito
rs Information Kiosk is one step closer. A groundbreaking was held this week with plans for completion by early fall. L to R: Greg Makula, Hanler Construction; Shirley Girioni, President of GPA, Russ Campaigne, architect; and Joseph Mazza, First Selectman. Missing from the photo are: Boynton Schmit
t, benefactor; Frank DePino, MediaBoom, and Jim Portley, Guilford Public Works.
The Guilford Preservation Alliance received two new grants at the end of 2014. The first was a grant to survey historic buildings, a grant in the amount of $30,000 from the State Department of Economic and Community Development, State Historic Preservation Office to add an additional 200 historic structures to the 450 buildings in 1981 State of CTH Historic Resources Inventory for the Town of Guilford. This grant will provide funds for architectural historians to identify and inventory historic buildings, produce a survey, including photographs, and give a public presentation on the project. The inventory will be helpful in recognizing, protecting and preserving these valuable resources.
The architectural historians hired by GPA to do this survey are Kristen Nietering, a Guilford native, and Jordan Sorenson, of New London, CT. Both have a passion for local history, and knowledge and experience in writing Historic Resource inventories, as well as National and State Register nominations. Ms. Nietering has worked as Project Manager for Historic Barns of CT and is currently project manager for the Creative Places Project. Ms. Sorenson works at the CT Trust for Historic Preservation as membership and office manager, and has experience as a consultant doing historic building research and inventories, as well as National Register nominations.
Shirley Girioni, president of GPA said that “The completed inventory will further protect our architectural heritage by forming the basis for the delay of demolition ordinance created by the Town of Guilford.”
This project is expected to be completed near the end of May, 2015. The Historic Resources Inventory and Supplement can be viewed here on our website.
The second grant was a Connecticut Humanities grant for $15,000 to support the building of a visitor information center kiosk and the development of the computer programming. The kiosk and its interactive virtual information center is the next step in the Heritage Tourism Initiative. It will provide information to tourists and residents and encourage their exploration of the town’s historic, cultural, and natural resources. The center, a modular structure that will be located adjacent to the Green Community Center, is scheduled to be built this fall 2015, and plans are to have it installed and operational by the following spring.
