You may have heard the Historical Society has decided to sell the Martha Parson’s property.
It was not an easy decision, and it took many months of consideration.
Like any organization, the Enfield Historical Society must keep in step with changes in the world around us. Changing lifestyles, different needs and wants from the public, and the Internet have greatly affected what people want us to provide.
Our three museums – the Old Town Hall, Wallop School, and Martha Parsons House – have each played a part in our mission to preserve Enfield’s history and to educate our community and the public in general about our town’s history. The Old Town Hall houses our collection of artifacts, photographs, documents, and more, and is the place to learn about all facets of Enfield history. The Wallop School tells the story of early, rural education, and is an integral part of our services to Enfield’s schools, particularly the third-grade classes that visit every year. The Martha Parsons House tells the story of a very successful businesswoman in a time when very few women held executive positions. In addition, it houses a collection of antiques and is an example of a late-1700s Connecticut house.
To continue to properly fulfill our mission, we need to do more than operate museums. We already provide free public programs on a variety of Enfield history topics. We provide free tours of the Old Town Hall and Wallop School to Enfield’s third-grade classes and other school and children’s groups. We answer countless questions from the public, some from as far away as Europe, Japan, and Australia. Everyone gets the same consideration, whether they are asking about their ancestors in town or are a researcher from a university, library, or government agency.
Remote public access to our collections is where the future is. We have multiple projects underway to meet this demand. We have begun to digitize our thousands of photographs and documents and to make them available on the Internet through the Connecticut Collections website, the Connecticut Digital Archive, and related national-level systems. These are major, multi-year projects.
We want to do it all but our resources – people and money – are not unlimited. And costs for everything are rising. What to do?
The Old Town Hall houses our collection of Enfield History objects and our photo and document archives. It is visited by every tour group from Enfield’s schools, scouting groups, and other children’s groups. The Wallop School is likewise a destination for Enfield’s third-grade class tours, and it is also extremely popular with visitors from the neighborhood. Both museums are critical to our mission.
Like many smaller historic house museums, the Martha Parsons House suffers from low visitation while at the same time being very expensive to maintain. Realizing that the drain on our already-stretched resources is not viable in the long term, the board of directors of the Enfield Historical Society began to investigate options for the museum. Here are some that were considered:
- Transfer ownership of the museum to Connecticut Landmarks or another organization: Connecticut Landmarks advised us that they only “accept donations of properties with significant (more than $1 million) endowments. Running a historic house isn’t really profitable and to make things work we really need some sort of income stream for the properties.”
- Install a cell tower at the rear of the property to generate income: Historic district restrictions, and objections from neighbors aside, the acreage is insufficient to allow for the required minimum setback.
- Install a solar farm at the rear of the property to generate income: Again, Historic District restrictions and objections from the neighbors aside, the open acreage is insufficient.
- “Mothball” the apartment attached to the Parson’s House and simply run the house as a museum on a schedule like that of the Old Town Hall Museum: A review of the visitor logs over the past few years showed an average of fewer than 1 visitor per week. Without a resident docent we would need at least one new volunteer guide. Security upgrades would be needed to protect the unoccupied property. Maintenance costs would remain for the house and property, such as landscaping, infrastructure upkeep, utilities, heating and cooling. This option was viewed as cost prohibitive.
- Convert the current two-bedroom apartment attached to the Parson’s House to a long-term rental: A board member OR the board would then assume the responsibilities of a landlord and all that it entails. Without a resident docent we would need at least one new volunteer to act as a guide. Utility costs would remain the same (approximately $1200 per month) and would result in severe pushback from any potential renter when added to the possible rental fee of $1300 per month. The combined cost would price the apartment out of the market. Before it could be rented, the apartment would require multiple upgrades including blown-in insulation, window replacement, and sequestration of pipes currently located beneath the floors in the crawl space open to the elements (and susceptible to freezing). While insuring the property as a mixed-use long-term rental is possible, this option is cost prohibitive.
- Convert the current two-bedroom apartment attached to the Parson’s House to a short-term rental: All considerations were like those of a long-term rental. In addition, the configuration would require the purchase of furniture and other amenities. NO company would insure the property under this configuration (Air B&B PLUS Museum), eliminating this option.
- Convert the current two-bedroom apartment attached to the Parson’s House to a short-term rental WHILE mothballing the Museum: All considerations were like those of a long-term rental. In addition, the configuration would require the purchase of furniture and other amenities. This option IS insurable AND could meet positive income projections BUT the Museum would be shuttered and unavailable to the public.
- Convert the current two-bedroom apartment attached to the Parson’s House to a short-term rental AND convert the Parson’s House Museum to short-term rentable space: All considerations were like those of a long-term rental. In addition, the configuration would require a massive investment in addressing the many issues of the house and bringing the interior space up to code; the purchase of furniture and other amenities would remain but would pale in comparison to the cost of upgrading the property itself. This entire house Air B&B option IS insurable AND could meet positive income projections (after MANY years) BUT the Museum would be shuttered and unavailable to the public.
- Sell the property: This releases the Historical Society from a role in Property Management, eliminates the ongoing expenses of maintaining the property, and makes the proceeds from the sale and the future savings from the eliminated expenses available for other projects.
In the end the board of directors voted to sell the property.
A clean sale of the property will allow the Society to address the needs of our other museums and make them and our collections more accessible to the greater public, including those with disabilities who we currently cannot fully serve.
Martha Parsons’ story will not be lost. It will live on in a new exhibit about her at the Old Town Hall and on our website. Remember – it was Martha Parsons who made history, not her house!
We expect the property to be offered in the Spring of 2024.
If an interested party would like to take on the task of locating the approximately $1 million needed to allow for a “re-imagination” of the property before then, including a plan for sustainability, it could be brought before the board for reconsideration of our decision.
As President of the Historical Society, I welcome your thoughts and will field any and all constructive calls on this matter (203-494-2678).
Peter Sorenson