Do You Want To Own A Historic Home?

Buying and owning a historic house can be as simple as buying any other house or it can involve a complex and lengthy labor of love that will immerse you in the history, craftsmanship, and aesthetics of New England culture. It all depends.  “Depends on what?” you say.

While house hunting, you see a colonial house with exposed beams, an ancient wooden floor, a fireplace big enough to seat two, and wooden paneled walls that glow with the patina of the ages.  It might even have a plaque on the front with a date such as 1749.  You buy it, live in it, and love it.  At night, you lie on the couch in front of the fire staring up at the oaken beams and muse on the fact that this house was already old when Abraham Lincoln was born.  That is a perfectly lovely and valid scenario, the simple one, and your only task would be to preserve your home in its current historical state.

Then there is the other scenario. That can involve extensive research into a house’s origins and history, which in turn might lead to the examination of two hundred and fifty year old land deeds, quasi and not so quasi archeological investigation of the changes that have been wrought in the house for said two hundred and fifty years, and the very complex and time consuming project called restoration.  But before that you would want to ensure that once you are finished your house cannot be modernized beyond recognition, or torn down for the purpose of replacement with a Mac Mansion.   

If a historic home is within a town’s historic district, then it is already most likely protected from demolition or inauthentic change.  In fact, any changes to the exterior of the house visible to the public would have to be approved by the town’s historic district commission.  But if it isn’t with that district, it may have been designated as a historic property. If it hasn’t and you wish to protect your new home, having it declared a historic property is a distinct possibility.  This route offers the most protection for significant historic houses in Connecticut.

 From the real estate point of view, historic houses, particularly those in a historic district, appreciate at a higher rate than ordinary houses and even outside a district uniqueness certainly adds to the long term value.  In addition, at the point of purchase, it is important to have a house inspector who is specially trained to evaluate the historic house. 

The process of restoration begins with an architectural investigation which will provide an understanding of the history of your new home and how it has changed over time. Then you can plan for its rehabilitation.  The first rule of investigation is don’t throw anything away! For example, that piece of rusty metal in a pile of what seems to be trash could have been part of the original house’s window sash or that rotting board might have been the original window’s frame!

 The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation has a beautifully designed and amazingly inclusive website describing every aspect of protecting, preserving, and restoring a historic house.  This is how they define restoration: 

“Restoration is the act or process of accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a property as it appeared at a particular period of time by means of the removal of features from other periods in its history and reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period. The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a restoration project.”               When it comes to the specter of being in code, the State of Connecticut does make allowances for alternative but safe construction in designated historic house.

Once you are finished with protection, preservation, or restoration think about the fact that your great, great, grandson might one evening lie on the couch, look up at oaken beams, and muse about how his home was old (and unchanged) from when Abraham Lincoln was born.  All in all, what ever the path, a pretty satisfying life experience.