Connecticut Historical Commission

 

 

At a Glance

 

JOHN W. SHANNAHAN, Director

Established – 1955

Statutory authority – CGS Sec. 10-320b.

Central office – 59 South Prospect Street,

Hartford, CT 06106

Number of employees - 18

Recurring operating expenses – $1,179,070

Organizational structure – Commission consists of 12 citizen-volunteer members appointed by Governor.

 

Mission

Primary responsibility is to protect Connecticut’s heritage resources (historic, architectural, engineering, landscape, and archaeological), including Commission-administered historic sites: Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine/Viets Tavern, East Granby; Henry Whitfield Museum, Guilford; Prudence Crandall Museum, Canterbury; Sloane-Stanley Museum, Kent; and Amos Bull House, Hartford.  Three of the properties are National Historic Landmarks; two are State Archaeological Preserves.

 

Statutory Responsibility

·         Historic site administration;

·         Statewide preservation planning;

·         Federal/state grants-in-aid;

·         Federal/state environmental review;

·         Certification of local governments as preservation partners;

·         Local historic district/property designations;

·         Archaeological preserve designations and permits;

·         Funding for cultural property owners;

·         Federal/state tax credits for historic rehabilitations;

·         State Building Code and Americans With Disabilities Act;

·         Lead paint abatement for historic structures;

·         Connecticut African-American Freedom Trail, including Underground Railroad sites;

·         General le Compte de Rochambeau Revolutionary War Trail in Connecticut;

·         As State Historic Preservation Officer, Commission’s director is Connecticut’s preservation liaison with federal government.

 

Public Service

     Measured by exhibitions/programs, visitor demographics, revenues, and service deliveries.  Contributing factors in 2002-2003 included:

·         Continuation of research, including primary sources in archaeology and architectural studies, in order to upgrade public services and educational offerings;

·         Active exhibition;

·         Increase in number of special programs at museums to enrich site experience;

·         Use of media at New-Gate Prison and Henry Whitfield State Museum to provide full site experience for physically disabled.

·         Performance measures for other preservation programs are mandated by U.S. Department of Interior to ensure federal grant-in-aid eligibility;

·         Grants-in-aid to municipalities and nonprofits;

·         Assistance to elected officials, town planners, and citizens through published management guides/protection tools;

·         Statewide Historic Resource Inventory (research database);

·         Expedited review of proposed demolitions (Conn. Gen. Statutes Sec. 22a-19a: Connecticut Environmental Protection Act);

·         Public education/technical assistance (lectures, conferences, tours, publications, including newsletters).

 

Improvements/Achievements 2002-03

·         Facilitated approximately $5.6 million of eligible rehabilitation for 32 projects approved under State Historic Homes Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program;

·         Reviewed 1,500 proposed state, federal, municipal, and private undertakings (bridge/highway improvements, water and sewer upgrades, housing subdivisions, gas pipelines, industrial parks, telecommunications facilities) for compliance with environmental laws and regulations;

·         Awarded five federal grants-in-aid to Certified Local Governments for historic preservation projects;

·         Executed Memoranda of Agreement with the Federal Highway Administration to document the New Haven Railroad and preserve Canterbury’s archaeological heritage;

·         Designated six new State Archaeological Preserves including Connecticut’s first two maritime sites (shipwrecks);

·         Facilitated 23 projects worth more than $56 million in Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits;

·         Completed 12 state-appropriated Historic Restoration Fund grants-in-aid to municipalities and nonprofits;

·         Completed historic building inventories for four towns;

·         Processed National Register of Historic Places nominations for ten new districts and 26 individual properties;

·         Published and distributed at no charge to Connecticut’s libraries, colleges, historical societies, and military organizations a total of 300 copies of a new book on Connecticut’s historic armories;

·         Designed and produced “Bicentennial Beacon: Faulkner’s Island Lighthouse 1802-2002,” exhibit at the Henry Whitfield State Museum in Guilford;

·         Completed significant landscape improvements at Henry Whitfield State Museum in Guilford;

·         Designed and produced award-winning public exhibit “Equality Under the Law? The Ongoing Struggle for Equal Opportunity” at Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury;

·         Worked with town officials and local organizations to celebrate Canterbury’s tercentennial including producing the exhibit, “Canterbury Celebrates Three Hundred Years” at the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury;

·         Completed stabilization of historic iron blast furnace at Sloane-Stanley Museum in Kent and stabilization studies for Viets Tavern and guardhouse at New-Gate Prison in East Granby;

·         Received assistance from the Town of East Granby for installation of new directional signs for New-Gate Prison;

·         Worked with local organizations to mount temporary exhibits at New-Gate Prison, East Granby;

·         Received donation of valuable painting by Eric Sloane from private donor for Sloane-Stanley Museum in Kent;

·         Initiated installation of digital collection management/inventory system for all agency museum collections;

·         Initiated comprehensive condition assessments for all museum properties funded by Department of Public Works;

·         Obtained extensive coverage of agency museums from commercial media services, including New York Times and National Public Radio;

·         Offered new and ongoing outreach programs at all agency museums;

·         Increased overall agency museum visitation rate by ten percent.

 

Information Reported as Required by State Statute

·                     Ongoing Partnerships:

*        Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation;

*        Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford;

*        Amistad Committee;

*        First Church Cemetery Association, East Haddam;

*        Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance   and Abolition at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies;

*        Descendants of the 29th Regiment;

*        Beecher House Society;

*        Farmington Historical Society;

*        Connecticut Militia Heritage Committee;

*        Torrington Historical Society;

*        Friends of New-Gate Prison;

*        Canterbury Historical Society; 

*        East Granby Historical Society;

*        Kent Historical Society;

*        Native American Heritage Advisory Council

*        Yale University, Department of Anthropology

*        Historic Guilford

 

·         New Partnerships:

*      Connecticut Gravesite Network;

*      Connecticut Underwater Advisory Committee;

*      Washington-Rochambeau Trail Committee;

*      West Hartford African American Social and Cultural Organization;

*      Scott Fanton Museum, Danbury;

*      John E. Rogers African American Cultural Center (Hartford);

*      Summer Wind Center for the Performing Arts, Windsor;

*      Faulkner’s Island Light Brigade, Guilford;

*      Guilford Garden Club;

*      Salmon Brook Historical Society, Granby

 

·         Affirmative action initiatives:

*  Assisted in the creation of affordable housing in urban neighborhoods through the administration of State Historic Homes Rehabilitation Tax Credits;

*  Reviewed and updated as necessary nondiscrimination provisions in grants contracts and manuals;

*  Maintained liaisons with state’s federally recognized Native American tribes and Native American Heritage Advisory Council;

*  With Office of State Archaeologist, protected Native

   American sacred sites and burials;

*      Updated and expanded Connecticut African-American Freedom Trail;

*      Published African-American History research reports.

*      Processed National Register of Historic Places nomination for George Jeffries House (African-American history site) in Meriden, Connecticut;

*      Completed research on: Connecticut’s Black Governors; Underground Railroad sites; William Lanson; the Minkisi Project; Deep River’s African-American Community settlement; Danbury Quarters (Free Black Community) in Winsted; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a Connecticut tobacco worker; and “Directional and Ritual Practices among African Diaspora Populations” in Connecticut.

*      Updated the Connecticut Freedom Trail website with new sites and events.

 

     Commission membership consists of 12 Governor appointees: Mr. Timothy R. Beeble, Bethel, Chairman; Ms. Barbara A. Hudson, Hartford, Vice-chairman; Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni, Newington; Dr. Richard Buel, Jr., Essex; Ms. Sharon Churchill, Esq., West Hartford; Dr. Christopher Collier, Orange; Ms. Katherine W. Green, Middletown; Mr. Richard L. Hughes, III, West Hartford; Ms. Jean Russell Kelley, Guilford; Mr. C. William Kraus, Norwalk; Mr. Edwin Richard Ledogar, Dayville; and Ms. Marsha Lotstein, West Hartford.