This 1911 home was the resident of Windsor's first woman school superintendent, Mattie Washburn. Her name is well respected within the community where one of its schools is named after her. It's for sale! The real estate listing identifies the parcel zoned as CR (Commercial Residential), which places this historic building at risk for redevelopment. Seen in the photo is a rare example of one of our regional identifiers, a period tank house (a.k.a. water tower). Some deferred maintenance has resulted in the use of a blue tarp over the tank house, however the home itself appears to be in great condition. This home would be a great candidate for the state's or nation's historic registry.
Update: The real estate listing has changed to describe the home as historic instead of its previous encouragement of redevelopment. The price came down, too!
Update: It appears that the Mattie Washburn home has been sold and will remain a private residence. It fate is still unclear, and we can only hope that the new owners will be sensitive to its local significance.
Thomas-
ReplyDeleteI agree. The states historic registry would be a perfect fit. Let's hope the right buyer comes along. I recently completed a project in Topsfield, MA on the Bradley Palmer Mansion located in the Willowdale Estate park. Bradley Palmer constructed in 1901, and was donated to the state of MA, after Bradley had passed. The state found that they did not have the $$$ to maintain the structure, so they agreed to lease it to a private investor who could run his "special event venue" business out of the mansion. The deal is that the investor had to restore the mansion, and maintain the building. The willowdale estate park, where the mansion is located, is still open to the public. It was a great trade between the taxpayers and a successful business man to prevent the mansion from becoming dilapidated.
-Jason Sawyer
Jason,
ReplyDeleteThank you for being my first commentator! This is a new venture for me, in part a response to my current academic research, and also a part of my long passion for preservation. It's encouraging to hear stories about preservation successes, as in your Bradley Palmer Mansion example. Creative reuse is often key to saving places, so hopefully something will come along for the places I post here. I intend to update each posting as they move from threatened to saved or lost; all focused on places in California. Too many times I have heard that "California has no history" from people within and outside the state. This fuels a collective amnesia, so highlighting older places seems to me paramount to telling California's history that nurtures sense of place.