GOSHEN — Once a resident bat vacates the attic, the piles of lumber and aluminum that wait outside the Williams-Boltwood House will become the 18th century relic’s new roof with the help of a matching $10,000 grant from Preservation Massachusetts and the 1772 Foundation.
As the circuit rider for Preservation Massachusetts, a statewide nonprofit historic preservation advocacy organization, Jeff Gonyeau is no stranger to antiques. But even he was impressed by the Williams-Boltwood House during a visit on Wednesday.
“It’s like a shopping mall from 1789,” he said about the structure that predates the town and has evolved since the year it was built. Over time, the building had been used as the town’s tavern, inn, and post office. Its first owner, John Williams and his wife, Mercy Weeks, raised 15 children at the home.
Admiring the structure and all that’s in it, Gonyeau handed over the check that will go toward alleviating serious leaking in the roof to members of the Williams-Boltwood Project board, volunteers and Myron Stachiw, the project’s historical architect.
“It’s just rare to find something like this: the combination of uses, the longevity of ownership, and all the records that are still in it, describing what happened here,” said Gonyeau.
“That level of intactness was because it was in the family for so long — but then the hoarding situation, from what I understand, helped on the inside. It’s like they didn’t throw anything away.”
In the words of Melanie Lamere, a member of the four-person board organizing the project, “if Goshen needed it to be something, it became it.”
The grants issued by Preservation Massachusetts are geared for exterior projects, whether that be roofing, siding repairs, painting, windows, foundation restoration or chimneys.
In the case of the Williams-Boltwood House, the roof will be replaced once a bat in the attic leaves, sometime in the coming months. While this is in accordance with state law, project board member and treasurer Bob Labrie said it is also “important” to protect bats.
The funding is one of three matching grants Williams-Boltwood has recently received. The project secured $10,000 from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution that will be used to replace rotting basement support beams, and $16,000 from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to conduct a planning study of the property.
Labrie stressed that matching grants are only possible because of the way the community comes together around the project to organize tag sales, parties, or other events that bring in revenue for the restoration.
There are also donors whom Labrie called, “the angels of the cause.”
“For example, just two days ago we got a check in the mail for $1,000 … last week we got a check for $400 because somebody found out about the grant and were looking to match funds,” he said.
Gonyeau praised the energy being put in by the community.
“This is clearly a well planned project, and the need for the funding was certainly high,” he said.
The completion of the restoration, said Labrie, remains unclear.
“While I would like to say we could be done in five years with the right level of funding, realistically, it could take up to a decade,” he said. “Amongst ourselves, we often joke about how we hope to finish the project in our lifetimes.”
Next year, a leaning chimney will be addressed or taken down, which would require significant grant funding.
Over the next five years outbuildings will be revived to create event function space, accessible bathrooms and a small caretaker’s apartment. The goal is that the function space will provide revenue to cover ongoing operating costs once the building is restored.
“We could have this entire project complete in one to two years if an angel donor gifted us with $2 million … but we are realistic that is going to take good ol’ Yankee determination to make this happen over time,” board member Kam Oborne said.
The house is not on the Registry of Historic Sites, but that is a goal in mind, said members of the board.
Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.
