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.
