The Guilford Preservation Alliance Newsletter Fall 2017 is available here on our website (click on the image or the link, and the newsletter will download to your computer), and has also been mailed to our members. [Read more…]
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.
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Fall 2014 Newsletter
Coming to you, hot off the press, is the Fall 2014 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.
As the year draws closer to its end, it seems like a good time to look back on what we have been doing since assuming the GPA’s first co-presidency in June, as well as to tell you our vision for the GPA in the years ahead. [Read more…]
In this, our first Presidents’ Blog entry since being elected as co-presidents at GPA’s June 24, 2013 annual business meeting, we would like to thank outgoing president Harry Haskell for his faithful stewardship of the organization during the length of his tenure as GPA president. [Read more…]
If you ask me what the Guilford Preservation Alliance does, I may have to pause and think: our programs and activities run the gamut from traditional historic preservation to sustainable development and environmental issues. But ask me what the GPA stands for and I can give you a one-word answer: partnership. [Read more…]
The next time you visit Guilford’s modern Shore Line East commuter rail station at the bottom of Old Whitfield Street, take a few moments to study the tall, octagonal brick water tower that stands sentinel on the north side of the tracks, a few hundred feet east of the passenger platform.
A crew of GPA volunteers recently cleared away the overgrowth and debris that have obscured this wonderful historic structure for years, allowing us all to appreciate the soaring pilasters, elegant corbelling, gracefully arched windows, and other details that make it one of Guilford’s architectural gems.
The GPA has long been in the forefront of efforts to bring the water tower and the adjacent rectangular engine house back to life. Both buildings date from around 1875, when Guilford’s 1850s-vintage wood-framed passenger depot–tragically demolished by Amtrak in 2000–was served by no fewer than a dozen steam-powered trains a day.
Today, twice that many Shore Line East trains stop in Guilford, bringing thousands of visitors and commuters to our doorstep every month of the year. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision the refurbished water tower as an iconic portal–say, a welcome and information center for tourists eager to explore our town’s wealth of historic, cultural, and recreational resources.
The 19th-century station buildings are an irreplaceable part of Guilford’s heritage. But preserving them is not about turning back the clock. It’s about planning for the future and capitalizing on one of our most distinctive and valuable assets. In short, it’s about making heritage and cultural tourism an integral part of Guilford’s 21st-century economy.
Elsewhere on this website you can read about some of the GPA’s related initiatives, including walking tours of the historic town center led by specially trained Guilford High School students, a presentation on sustainable development by one of the leading “green” developers in the country, and a new website, www.historicguilford.org, dedicated to promoting our town as a tourist destination.
The train station project is a key part of that larger effort. It’s also an urgent priority, as the continuing deterioration of the water tower indicates. Thanks to the generosity of dozens of Guilford citizens, the GPA has a substantial fund earmarked for stabilizing the station buildings, and we are currently assessing the possibility of raising additional funds to install a new roof on the water tower.
Reconstructed sections
Pending resolution of legal issues relating to ownership and potential liability for toxic cleanup on the site, the GPA board last year decided to move ahead incrementally, starting by commissioning field-measured architectural plans of the two station buildings. Over the past several months, local architects William Mack and Randy Siress have donned hard hats, braved the elements, and volunteered hundreds of hours of time to create the beautiful drawings of the water tower that you can view here.
Since the original plans for the structure no longer survive, this painstakingly researched documentation enables us for the first time to accurately envision the water tower in all its pristine splendor. From a practical standpoint, the drawings will serve as a blueprint for the building’s restoration and make reconstruction possible in the event that it collapses in a hurricane or other natural disaster.
On a separate but parallel track, the GPA is collaborating with Amtrak, Connecticut State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni and his colleagues at the State Historic Preservation Office, town officials, and other interested parties to develop a long-range plan for preserving the water tower and engine house as part of an ecologically and economically sustainable effort to revitalize the neighborhood around the train station.
Many pieces will need to fall into place before this complex project becomes a reality. In the meantime, the GPA is working with the state Department of Transportation to install a permanent historical display about the old passenger and freight depot in the foyer of the Shore Line East commuter rail station, a project made possible through the generosity of Boynton Schmitt, a long-time friend of preservation in Guilford.
Both the exhibit and the eventual adaptive reuse of the old station buildings demonstrate, in a very tangible way, what we mean when we speak about connecting Guilford’s past and future.
Best wishes,
Harry Haskell,
President
The unpretentious utilitarian building at the corner of Water and River Streets evokes memories of the time when Guilford residents could hop aboard an electric trolley on the Green and take the scenic route up and down the shoreline, from New Haven to New London and beyond.
Presently occupied by a carpet store, the old trolley barn was built around 1910 and served as a maintenance facility for electric railway cars until 1930. During the brief heyday of the interurban trolley, before the muffled roar of highway traffic disturbed the peace, the gentle ding-ding-ding of the trolley bell signaled a vital link between small agricultural communities like Guilford and the wider world.
We hope that you and your families will join us for our free spring program on May 10, when we’ll turn back the clock and recapture the magic of Guilford’s bygone trolley era. There will be old-time music, displays, slide shows, refreshments, and a presentation by a founding member of East Haven’s renowned Trolley Museum. The doors will open at 6:30, and we promise to get you home at an early hour (see the page on our website about our program, “Back on Track” for more information).
Although we can’t bring back the electric trolleys, the issues of mass transit and energy-efficient “transit-oriented” development are very much on the agenda of both the GPA and town officials these days. Guilford is fortunate to have excellent commuter rail service seven days a week, as well as hourly bus service to and from New Haven on weekdays. Experience has shown that mass transit isn’t a luxury that only big-city residents can enjoy. It’s an essential part of the infrastructure that sustains the local economies of small and middle-sized towns like Guilford.
Elsewhere on our website, my fellow bloggers Howard Brown and Dennis Culliton shed light on two of the GPA’s longstanding priorities—sustainable development and historic preservation. Far from being mutually exclusive, it’s our belief that, as Howard says, “preservation and economic development are two sides of the same coin.” For example, the GPA’s ongoing efforts to preserve Guilford‘s 19th-century railroad station buildings are fueled by a conviction that such historic resources can be a driving force in the economic revitalization of our town center.
Through our website, public programs, and other activities, the GPA will continue to keep you informed about news and events of interest to our community. Guilfordpreservation.org is a work in progress. Among the enhancements you can look forward to is a greatly expanded and more user-friendly online registry of historic buildings around town. Stay tuned, visit us often, and please let us hear from you.
Best wishes,
Harry Haskell
President
Welcome to the Guilford Preservation Alliance’s new and improved website! We hope you like the crisp, up-to-date look that designer Cathi Bosco has created for us. We invite you to visit us online regularly and explore the site’s many new features. In addition to columns focusing on local history and issues related to planning and development, you’ll find information about the GPA’s public programs and other activities, news about current preservation issues, and links to other websites that we think will interest you.
Although “preservation” is the GPA’s middle name, we take equal pride in our “alliance” moniker. Since 1980, the GPA has been partnering with town officials and other community organizations to build bridges between Guilford’s past and future as the town continues to grow. You can be an important part of that effort by joining our team of hard-working volunteers. Our new website is intended to encourage communication and dialogue, and help identify areas in which we can work together to enhance Guilford’s unique character and way of life.
Unlike Guilford’s five outstanding historic-house museums, the GPA has no physical property to maintain. Nor is our agenda limited to historic preservation, environmental stewardship, open-space protection, or any other specific issue. Instead, the GPA was founded with a broad mission to “preserve and protect the built and natural heritage of the town” and to promote “joint public action to mobilize the community” in pursuit of those goals. Over the years, our initiatives have ranged from popular educational programs like “Early Guilford Days” to the planting of street trees and the protection of scenic viewsheds and corridors, such as those along Routes 77 and 146. You can read about some of our major accomplishments by clicking on the menu under GPA Projects.
In collaboration with the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, GPA volunteers recently completed a field survey of Guilford’s historic barns and other outbuildings. The statewide survey, including photos and descriptions of many Guilford barns, can be viewed online at www.connecticutbarns.org. The more comprehensive local survey can be consulted in print form in the Historic Room of the Guilford Free Library and will soon be available online at this address. We are also working on plans to expand and improve the GPA’s valuable online survey of historic buildings in Guilford.
In celebration of our thirtieth anniversary, the GPA will mount an exhibition of Ellen Ebert’s beautiful color photographs of scenic and historic sites around town–this display will appear in the Town Hall sometime in the first half of 2011. A selection of Ellen’s images adorns our new homepage.
For those of you who are not already GPA members, membership is only a click away (see Membership page on our heading above). In filling out our membership form you may also choose to contribute to the Hugh McKay Jones Trust Fund for Historic Preservation. Established in 1985 in honor of Hugh Jones, a noted architect and community benefactor, this revolving fund enables the GPA to provide loans and grants to worthy preservation projects around town. In 2010, for example, we made grants to the Guilford Keeping Society, to help with the upkeep of the Griswold House Museum, and to the Dudley Farm in North Guilford for renovation of a porch roof.
Whatever your particular interest or expertise, the GPA values your input and participation. Remember: your energy, enthusiasm, and ideas are our most important renewable resource!
Best wishes,
Harry Haskell
President
