Connecticut Preservation News March/April 2006 Volume XXIX, No. 2 Courtesy of Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina Charleston, Courtesy of Hall, Drayton Collection of the Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, Connecticut Litchfield, Collection of the Litchfield Historical Society, Restoration versus Preservation The Ozias Seymour house in Litchfield, Rather than restore Drayton Hall in South Carolina, in the 1960s. The porch and door on the National Trust for Historic Preservation decided the wing are the subject of a preserva- to stabilize and preserve the house without even tion debate. (Since the photograph was installing heat or air conditioning, an approach taken, the balustrades were removed in keeping with John Ruskin’s anti-restoration from the roof.) approach to preservation. estoration and preservation are not necessarily the same In Litchfield, the owner of the Seymour house seems to R thing, as a recent dispute in Litchfield has highlighted. belong to Viollet-le-duc’s school of restoration. According to This case has put Litchfield right in the middle of a preserva- William Devlin, an historian who testified on the owner’s tion debate that has been raging for more than 100 years, behalf, the main reason for removing the door and porch was one that involves all Connecticut local historic districts. that having two doorways on the front wall of the house was The dispute began when the owner of the Ozias Seymour confusing to visitors and that replacing the side door with a house, located in Litchfield’s historic district, removed a door window would give the façade greater coherence. Moreover, the and a porch from the house’s side wing and replaced them with door had been altered, was out of character with the house as a a window that matches the other windows on the house. The whole and was not of itself an important piece of architecture. wing, which always had a door, was added to the house in about “Should a minor Victorian addition be a major make-or-break 1830, and the porch added in the 1850s. The historic district element of an important Federal house?” Devlin asked. commission tried to require the owner to reverse the change; In contrast with Viollet-le-duc’s approach to restoration was she sued to overturn the ruling and won on a procedural issue. that of the English critic John Ruskin. Reacting to the some- In the 19th century, Europeans began restoring architectural times drastic efforts of Viollet and his followers, Ruskin wrote monuments to their past glory. One of the most prominent that [Restoration] means the most total destruction which a build- restorers was the French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le- ing can suffer: a destruction out of which no remnants can be duc, whose works include Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and gathered; a destruction accompanied with false description of the who penned a famous definition of restoration: To restore an continued on page 12 edifice means neither to maintain it, nor to repair it, nor to rebuild it; it means to reestablish it in a condition of completeness, which may in fact never have actually existed at any given time. As this suggests, Viollet’s restorations often included a good deal of what ____________________________________________________In This Issue... we might consider guesswork; his aim was to undo alterations New London’s State Street 3 made after the original construction and sometimes to fulfill ____________________________________________________ the medieval builders’ unfulfilled intentions. Buildings restored Around the State 8 by Viollet-le-duc often look drastically different from their ____________________________________________________ pre-restoration selves, but they are works of great beauty and coherence that have inspired other restorers around the world. Connecticut Closeups 16 The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, nonprofit organization. ISSN 1084-189X AT THE TRUST From the Executive Director n important component of make sure we have up- A the Connecticut Trust’s strategic to-date e-mail addresses. plan is to improve how we reach our The Trust has been constituencies. Two recent activities are selected to participate a direct outcome of that goal for 2006: in a Google Grants The Trust has signed up with a web program that will give messaging service, Constant Contact, us free advertising on which allows us to send important Google for three months. announcements electronically, in a format Whenever someone types that is both attractive and consistent with any of a selected list of the Trust’s image. We are using this sys- key words into Google’s tem to keep legislators informed of Trust search engine, a three-line activities and grants in their districts and ad for the Connecticut Capture from www.connecticutbarns.org. Watch your mail for more exciting House Talk programs in the upcoming year. to disseminate information to members on Trust will appear on the our awards program, our map of Historic first page of the search results. The ad will around the state. Finding the barns depend- Sites in the Settlement of African Americans include a link to our website, www.cttrust. ed on good local contacts. When there in Connecticut during Black History org. After researching the most common were no local contacts, the researchers just month, our real estate courses, HouseTalk, search words used in historic preserva- drove around with a map on the passenger’s and other events. For the time being, we tion and history searches—for example, seat, stopping whenever they saw a barn to have opted not to join the e-newsletter “this old house” is the top one—we have note its location and snap some photos. In world, believing that our print magazine, selected twenty that we hope will help some cases, known old and/or scenic roads, Connecticut Preservation News, now in its us reach a targeted audience. We look like Route 169 in the east and Route 4 in 27th year, is too important a communica- forward to seeing a three-month burst of the northwest, provided starting points for tion vehicle to abandon. I hope that all our activity at www.cttrust.org that we hope will exploration. We hope to receive one final members will view this electronic method translate into further use of our services. grant from the Humanities Council in May of communicating our work and events With funding from the Connecticut to develop exhibits and a database from this as helpful and informative and want to Humanities Council, three architectural research for our new website, www.connect- historians and four researchers wrapped up icutbarns.org. The site is already up; please a six-month field survey of Connecticut visit it now, but come back later, too, when barns, collecting either windshield or com- it will have much more information. prehensive documentation on 400 barns —Helen Higgins The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation is a nonprofit statewide membership organization established by a special act of the State Legislature in 1975. Working with local preservation groups and individuals as well as with statewide organizations, it encourages, advocates and facilitates historic preservation throughout Connecticut Board of Trustees Gubernatorial Appointees Connecticut Preservation News is published Theodore F. Elis, Branford bimonthly by the Connecticut Trust Officers for Historic Preservation, 940 Whitney The Hon. Arthur Lathrop, Norwich Avenue, Hamden, Connecticut 06517-4002. Theodore F. Ells, Chairman, Branford Jeffry Muthersbaugh, Bethel Publication is made possible by the support Walter Fiederowicz, Vice Chairman, of the members of the Connecticut Trust Litchfield Advisory Council for Historic Preservation and by a matching Jared Edwards, West Hartford grant-in-aid from the U.S. Department of the Susan U. Lawrence, Secretary, Darien Interior, National Park Service, through the Mimi Findlay, New Canaan PRODUCING CUSTOM MILLWORK FOR Stanley G. Fullwood, Acting Treasurer, Connecticut Commission on Culture and Canton John Herzog, Madison Tourism under provisions of the National Lee Kuckro, Wethersfield Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The CONNECTICUT CONTRACTORS AND Additional Members of the contents and opinions stated herein do not Stephen S. Lash, Stonington necessarily reflect the views and policies of the HOMEOWNERS FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS Board of Trustees Charles T. Lee, Greenwich Department of the Interior. The Connecticut Martha Alexander, New Haven Cesar Pelli, New Haven Trust for Historic Preservation assumes no responsibility for the advertisements. Mary Anderson, Noank Andrew Roraback, Goshen SPECIALIZING IN PERIOD WOODWORK Joan Carty, Bridgeport John W. Shannahan, Suffield This program receives Federal financial J. Barclay Collins, Sharon assistance for identification and protection WINDOWS • DOORS • ENTRANCES Staff of historic properties. Under Title VI of the William W. Crosskey, II, AIA, Bolton Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 MOLDINGS • BALUSTRADES Inger McCabe Elliott, Stonington Helen Higgins, Executive Director of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the U.S. Lynn Friedman, Madison Christopher Wigren, Deputy Director Department of the Interior prohibits dis- Pamela Gallagher, Director of Development crimination on the basis of race, color, national PANELING • TURNING • CARVING Glenn Geathers, Hartford origin, or handicap in its federally assisted Lisa Holmes, Hadlyme Brad Schide, Connecticut Circuit Rider programs. If you believe you have been Bill Hosley, Enfield Nina E. Harkrader, Connecticut