#Middlebury #MiddleburyLandTrust #NicholsRoad
Winter sun shines down on the Peck-Nichols house in January 2019. The Colonial farm house was built in the 1780s. (Marjorie Needham photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
The fate of the Colonial-era farm house on Nichols Road (the Peck-Nichols house) has been determined by the Middlebury Land Trust (MLT). MLT President Scott Peterson said examination by a structural expert determined onsite restoration is not feasible. The MLT decided the best thing to do would be to have a company that does historic restorations remove the house, restore it and give it a new life somewhere else. What the MLT did not know until recently is what that new life would be when Heritage Restorations acquired the house.
Asked if he knew what would happen to the house, Kevin Durkin, president of Heritage Restorations, said, “I’m going to keep it … It’s really a wonderful little house that deserves a complete restoration.” He said the house will be dissembled and transported to Idaho, where his daughter lives. It then will be restored and become a bed and breakfast overlooking the mountains in a small town near Moscow, Idaho.
Durkin said he understands people often feel sad when a building leaves their community. “It’s always our wish that things stay in place and be restored, but that isn’t always economically possible,” he said. “This is the next best option.”
He said his company will precisely date the structure and then restore it with materials from the period when the house was built. He said it will look exactly as it looked when it was built.
Durkin said they will send a piece of beam with bark on it to the Cornell University dendochronology lab. That lab will be able to date the wood, not just to a specific year, but to the specific season in the year that it was harvested.
It turns out Durkin has Connecticut connections despite being a Texas resident. His family hails from the New Haven area, and he himself attended Connecticut College. Those who read about the house earlier may recall that Augustus Peck lived in the house with his wife, who was a Curtiss. Durkin, whose ancestors were among the first settlers in New Haven, said Curtisses from New Haven are in his genealogy. He didn’t know if they were connected to the Middlebury Curtisses, but he said it made this kind of a special project for him.
After holding a conservation easement on the Nichols Road land for many years, the MLT bought the house and land from the town last year. As part of the purchase, the town required the MLT to use a reserve of $25,000 to evaluate, maintain and/or preserve the historic homestead. The town also required the MLT to evaluate the property within one year after transfer of title.
Peterson said an expert recommended by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation conducted a structural analysis of the house. The news was not good.
The expert estimated the cost to repair the house would be at least $500,000, an amount that far exceeds the MLT’s ability to fund such an effort. And, based on efforts to fund raise for the house in 2011, which managed to raise about $20,000, Peterson said he did not believe donations would cover the reconstruction.
Major reconstruction is needed because of extensive termite damage to the first floor framing. The structural engineering firm that inspected the property reported some of the principal timbers have been completely consumed by termites. Based on the extent of that damage, experts estimated termites have been active for at least a century. They said in this climate it takes subterranean termites a very long time to do the amount of damage they observed.
It seems the house has escaped demolition for the third time. In 1985, then property owners Connecticut Water Company decided not to demolish it. Then, when the Town of Middlebury owned it, it escaped being burned to the ground in a firefighter training exercise in 2011. To get a sense of what will happen to the house now, visit the Heritage Restorations website, heritagebarns.com, to see photos and videos of restorations done by the company.
Although the house will be gone, Peterson said the historic significance of the site will be preserved and historical interpretive markers will be placed where the house and each of the outbuildings (long gone) once stood. These will be much like the markers one sees along the Greenway.
Peterson said there will be no cost to the MLT or the Town of Middlebury for removal of the house. Heritage Restorations also is contributing $3,000 towards the interpretive markers and is donating one of the Colonial fireplace mantles to the Middlebury Historical Society for permanent display.
Peterson also said the MLT will be moving forward with trail improvement and continuing its research into having a dog park on the property.
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