"First Look" held twice!
The
Oxford Historical Society held our "First Look" at the
homestead on Saturday, Oct. 29. Because of the snow storm
many people missed the opportunity to see the house, so the Society
held a second open house on Sunday, Dec. 4. See News articles about the events: The building is listed in the Connecticut Register of Historic
Places. The Society has renovated the
first floor of the building for use as a local history educational center and
museum.
The Twitchell-Rowland Homestead was built in the 1750's by
Joseph Twitchell. It remained in the
family for many generations. It was
later owned by a variety of farm families.
The Rowland family purchased the farm in the early 1900's. Eventually, Manuel Moutinho's Mark IV
Construction company acquired the property.
He developed the property, now known as Glendale. When preparing to develop the land, the
decision was made to demolish the homestead.
Through the willingness of Moutinho to allow the historical
society to move the homestead, and the generosity of Fred and Myrtle Rowland to
donate land on Towner Lane for the house, demolition was avoided.
The Town of Oxford supplied half the cost of the
approximately $60,000 spent on moving day, and the rest was raised through
private donations, grants, and society fund-raising.
The actual moving of the homestead was on September 28,
2006, thanks to the cooperation of CL&P, Valley Cable, and SNET whose crews
worked together to raise and lower all the utility wires to allow the
move. The house went three-tenths of a
mile from its original location to 60 Towner Lane. There it was placed in a trench that had been prepared by
volunteers Robbie Robinson and Fred Schiavi, with help from Donnie Rich and
Ronald Stebar.
The movers left the house on I-beams supported by
blocks. The Society hired two
restoration carpenters to install new sills.
Thanks to the donation of thousands of dollars worth of concrete and
concrete blocks, plus the volunteer labor of mason Gary Pelletier, the foundation was raised under the homestead. The final removal of the I-beams was
accomplished on June 1, 2007.
Since that date, members of the Society and volunteers from
the community have devoted hundreds of hours, painting, repairing and
renovating the homestead to bring it up to current fire and building code
requirements. Girl Scouts and Master
Gardeners have worked on the period-appropriate garden in front of the
homestead. Boy Scouts worked together on
Jay Ernst’s Eagle project to install an accessible ramp. The Society has benefited through donations
of money and material from over 500 Oxford residents to prepare the homestead
as Oxford's first museum. Major grants
from the Valley Community Foundation, the Naugatuck Savings Bank Foundation,
and the Katherine Matthies Foundation greatly helped the project..
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