The only way to solve it was to buy it. But it will continue to be for sale – to the person who loves it for its history and its features and doesn’t want to knock it down. We had to buy it to keep it safe. The restoration will be a long, slow process as we are otherwise engaged in a very long and time consuming project elsewhere. But little by little we will peel away the awful things that have happened to it – vinyl siding, home depot windows, layers of neglect. The chimney will be rebuilt. Because of its location, this million dollar project will be reclaimed for much less and may need fundraising efforts. I am thinking of selling bricks. Perhaps for a small fee one can have their name live forever on a brick in the to-be-rebuilt attic chimney of the Asahel Olcott house.
There will be little or no profit here, at least financially. This is not an upscale neighborhood. It is a humble farming community, desirable only to the folks sensitive enough to value the quiet ambiance of this street along the Great River, that brought initially the Dutch and then the folks from Dorchester to settle here, Connecticut’s first town. The profit is to the street, to the neighbors, and to Connecticut’s rich history. We are doing this out of respect for Asahel Olcott who responded in 1775 to the Lexington Alarm. Now we’ve responded to his alarm, to preserve the homes of our ancestors, who not only fought for our freedom, but gave us a rich architectural heritage that sustains us physically, aesthetically and psychologically. We still wonder at, and learn from, their courage, their efforts, their class.
Will keep you posted on the progress.