KENT, Conn.—First Selectman Eric Epstein set a Thursday, April 30, deadline for a Swift House Subcommittee to develop proposals and estimates for the future use of the ancient building following a tour of the site last Saturday.
Swift House, one of the oldest extant buildings in the village center, has been town owned since the early 1970s but a definitive use for it has never been found. Now, with expensive repairs needed to make it handicap accessible, the debate continues as to whether the town should keep or sell the structure.
During former first selectman Marty Lindenmayer’s tenure in office, architectural studies were undertaken by the Swift House Task Force and architects Silver Petrocelli drew up plans for a proposed use. Those plans, which would have made the building completely ADA compliant, would have cost more than $2 million dollars.
The former select board discussed modified uses of the building, including for Social Services and the Food Bank, but a STEAP grant application failed to secure funding to do the work needed. In the end, the previous administration decided to leave decisions about the building to the current board of selectmen.
Since then, representatives of the Kent Historical Society have made impassioned pleas for more time to assess the house and to propose a plan forward for it. Epstein’s motion on Saturday, Feb. 7, which was approved by other members of his board, calls for the subcommittee to provide recommendations for the “redesign, redevelopment, upgraded construction and ADA compliance” of the building. The subcommittee will be asked to develop cost estimates for making the building ADA compliant enough to reopen it.
A secondary charge asks the subcommittee to advise the selectmen about what conditions should be imposed if the town were to sell the building. There is concern that a new owner would destroy the building. A preservation easement would be the only preventative for such an outcome.
“I am giving a real tight timeline of April 30 so we can include this in the budget—or not include it,” Epstein said, adding that the subcommittee would include a selectman, a member of the board of finance and five members at large.
Lynn Harrington, who supports town ownership of the building, will represent the board of selectmen. With such a tight deadline, it was urged that the remaining members be named at the Selectmen’s next meeting tonight, Feb. 11.
The decision to form another subcommittee followed a tour of the building, also conducted last Saturday. Town Historian Marge Smith led the tour, during which she described the history of Swift House. She said that the oldest portion dates back to first settlement by persons of European descent.
Leading the group into the basement, she pointed to a portion of the foundation that probably dates to 1740 when Jabez Swift built a structure 18-by-18 feet to satisfy his bond for ownership. In later centuries, two other buildings were moved from nearby locations and added to Swift’s house to increase its size. The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has commended the building for its historical representation of different periods of settlement in the town.
“Every part dates back to around 1800,” she said. “[SHPO] found the oldest foundation that still exits.” She said that it Is unusual that it was found on the Plain as most of the earliest settlement was in the Flanders section of town.
When you live long enough, you see many changes and the Swift House has, indeed, seen many uses and many changes. As Smith walked the group through the building, it was evident that the internal design of the old building had been shifted generation by generation. She suggested still more revisions that would allow efficient and less expensive compliance with 21st-century uses.
“The existing stairs to the second floor are not in compliance,” she noted, “but there is a space behind them that was a kitchen that we could use to make the stairs accessible.”
An existing bathroom on the ground floor could be easily enlarged to make it compliant, and she pointed to a door at the rear of the building that would provide handicap access without alteration. The upstairs requires a secondary access that she suggested could be provided by an exterior elevator.
“SHPO has no problem with exterior elevators,” she reported. “In the back of the building there are plenty of possibilities for ADA compliance and that is where people will park anyway.”
Christine Adams, the new director of the historical society, said organizations such as Preservation Connecticut will want the façade of the building to remain historic, but added that they open to ADA accommodations. “They realize they can’t take a property away [by insisting on historic accuracy]—if it needs to be used, it needs to be used.”
Adams, who has written successful grants for other communities, has offered her skills in applying for money to help with the building’s preservation.
In offering to serve on the new subcommittee, Selectman Lynn Harrington said she believes “there is a lot of value in the place, and I would like us to do our best to keep it.
But resident Matt Starr said he had been “a little shocked” at the condition of the building during the visit, noting, “there is no alarm system—no fire, no smoke, nothing. I’m shocked. It’s such an old building and it’s a tinderbox. One mistake and the whole story is over. I think we should use some of the money we have already been taxed for for fire prevention. It sounds like a lot of people love building and there should be a plan to protect it.”
He was critical of the money that has been earmarked in the Capital Plan for restoration of the building when there has been no concrete plan for the building’s future. “We’re being taxed, but there is no plan. There are a lot of other projects not being done. There has never been a vote [on what will happen with Swift House.] Maybe taxpayers don’t want to have some of these projects. I don’t think things should be put in the Capital Plan until there is a plan for them,” he said.
