As in the case of Lamson House, it’s helpful if curators have construction experience because their costs to self-install a septic system, for instance, will be much less than if Dodge House they have to hire a contractor to do the work. But construction experience is not required. “There are some buildings that don’t need as much work,” Allen says. “If you’re not an electrician but you know you’re going to have to hire an electrician, you have to have those resources.”
DCR does not impose strict deadlines on progress but it does want the property occupied as quickly as possible. “Sometimes it takes a while for a number of reasons. There will always be delays; we just want them working toward a goal,” Allen says.
In addition, as part of the Historic Curatorship Program, the state requires the public be able to share in the experience of the building at least twice per year. “Beyond what the curators are already doing, which is a lot, we ask them for programming that engages the public and provides benefits to the park,” Allen adds. For example, Willowdale Estate hosts the DCR system-wide First Day Hike on Jan. 1 at Bradley Palmer State Park. The estate serves as the beginning and end of the hike, provides refreshments and conducts tours of the mansion.
In 2011, DCR hosted a reunion of sorts in which all the curators came together to share experiences and lessons learned. “Nobody had any regrets; nobody lost money,” Allen says. “It’s really like a family of people who have led this unique life and can share their stories. The way the housing market fell around here, the Historic Curatorship Program really helped some of these folks because the first five years requires the majority of the investment but then they have the next 20 or more years without a mortgage payment or interest on a mortgage payment, so they can invest the money they would be spending on a mortgage on something else to make up for that equity.”
Allen adds people question how curators can invest in a building for 30 years and then walk away with nothing but the satisfaction of saving a historic building. He says, “If you look at what the real costs are going to be and then consider that you’re not going to have the costs associated with purchasing or renting a property, it can balance out for the right curator.”
DCR encountered the end of its first lease within the Historic Curatorship Program two years ago. The curator had transformed the Gatekeeper’s House at Lowell Heritage State Park, Lowell, Mass., and wasn’t interested in extending the lease. Park staff took some measures to maintain the building, like running the heat and installing motion-sensitive lighting, but vandals targeted it within six months. “There’s not as much money that needs to go into this property, but there’s real value for basically the equivalent of 24-hour security and the guarantee of 25 years of maintenance,” Allen says. “There isn’t a lot of fanfare for maintenance and it certainly doesn’t get the funding it needs, but that year-to-year maintenance is what keeps these buildings from getting to the point where we can’t bring them back again. That’s worth a huge amount, too.”
Allen hopes to put an RFP out for the Lowell Gatekeeper’s House soon. He thinks there will be a much broader group of people who can apply, allowing the program to be even more selective when choosing the house’s next curator.