KENT, Conn.—The Swift House Investigation Committee, charged with providing the selectmen with input on the redesign and development of the ancient structure on Maple Street, got off to a vigorous start this week when its seven members held an organizational meeting.
Five members, James Anderson, who serves on the town’s Historic District Commission; Margie Austell, educator; Bill Reihl, who has had extensive experience in fundraising for the preservation of historic structures; Christine Anderson, director of the Kent Historical Society, and Marge Smith, historical society curator, joined Board of Finance representative Jason Wright and Selectman Lynn Harrington on the committee. Anderson was named chairman.
The members, who have only until April 30 to make their report to the selectmen, are charged with providing data about construction and ADA upgrades for the town-owned building, and to propose uses for the building. They are also to create a secondary plan for its sale.
The committee members were universally agreed that the building should be preserved, either under town ownership or through sale to a private party. Smith reported that she had had contact with a local resident who is very interested in purchasing the building and preserving it.
“He is literally in our backyard,” she said. “He loves the Swift House and would be honored to buy it, preserve it and rent it to the historical society or as a visitor’s center, which is a logical thing to do. He wants to do exactly what we want to do and understands the concept of putting it on the National Register.”
While members received the news happily, they believed they need to examine all aspects of the situation to develop a ranked list of possibilities for the building. “It sounds like it could be a sweetheart solution if we can get it off the [town’s] books and still have use if it for community,” said Wright, “but we should we flesh that out first.”
“I don’t think we should zero in on that before we explore other options,” said Anderson. “There could be other people interested, other uses. If we bake in too fast, it’s just bad business.”
The committee is also reaching out to Taylor Swift’s family to see if she or her father, who are directly descended from the local Swift family, might be interested in underwriting the preservation of the building.
“It is a wonderful historical house,” said Wright. “We could take a little room and make it about the Swift family.”
“Is it [the historical connection to Taylor Swift] real or are we dreaming?” asked Anderson.
“There’s actually a real connection,” said Wright. “Their ancestor was the brother of the builder. We have a legitimate thread.”
The oldest part of Swift House is thought to have been built by Jabez Smith circa 1740 at the time the town was founded. It is actually three houses that were joined together in the 19th century and is in considered to be important by the State Historic Preservation Office because it shows the evolution of building techniques in the Early Republic.
“I think we have to identify some sense of vision, an aspiration for the building,” Wright continued. “If budget and resources were not an issue, how would we use it? Right now, we don’t have that blank filled in. Anything that keeps it off the town’s financial statements is good, but we need to be creative in finding the right disposition, whether the town keeps it, leases it or sells it.”
Christine Adams stressed the need to put a preservation easement in perpetuity on the property to ensure it will never be razed. Because the easement would follow the property’s deed, it would have to be held by an entity that will exist for generations to come.
“It could be the town, the historical society or an organization like Preservation Connecticut,” she said, adding that having the structure listed on the National Registry of Historic Places would make it easier to get a state-level organization to hold the easement.
Getting the property listed would require a capital outlay of several thousand dollars and members discussed the possibility of getting grants to hire a consultant. Wright suggested that the relatively modest amount it would cost could easily be funded by the town without grants, thereby speeding up the process. It was agreed that the town attorney should be able to draw up the easement and Adams said she would gather draft easements for the committee to consider.
“In a perfect world, we would see it restored to be a gateway to the town and in a manner that people would want to visit for information about the town, for historical exhibitions and also to have a few rooms for meetings,” Wright said. “We could make it a separate entity from the town that is leased for $1 a year to an entity that would do the programing.”
Under the previous Board of Selectmen, an architectural firm, Silver Petrucelli, was hired to develop architectural drawings of an ADA-compliant building. Estimated costs ranged up to $2 million for the work, but Zanne Charity, who led the Swift House Task Force, said she felt that estimate to be high. She noted that former first selectman Mary Lindenmayer wanted to move the Social Services office and the Food Bank there. The building would have needed reinforced floors to sustain the weight of the food pantry’s refrigeration units.
“I think the number was elevated for load bearing,” she said. “We had plans that were not so costly.”
“Our obligation is to come up with a ranking of what we think is optimal for the town,” said Anderson. “Then we can get to work on how to get funding. If we have ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C’ and ‘D’ and then we find ‘A’ can’t be afforded, you can go to ‘B.’ If this is historically significant for the town, we should work on the easement. If it is just sold and becomes a real estate project or someone extends the gas station, it would be a huge loss to the town and would, frankly, look pretty stupid.”
“People don’t come to Kent for a strip mall,” agreed Adams. “They come for the ambiance of Main Street, where there is character and real soul. Putting it on the [National Registry] wouldn’t be just an honorific, it would be a real draw.”
But Selectman Harrington cautioned that the vision must engage the whole town. “The big thing is to define uses that the whole town is in consensus with. If not, that’s almost a stopper. I love these ideas, but are they the best uses for the amount of funding?”
The group will meet bi-weekly for the next two months to reach its deadline. The next meeting is slated for Tuesday, March 10.
