Relocation of historic New Milford schoolhouse stalled due to COVID
NEW MILFORD — A plan to relocate the Hill and Plain one-room schoolhouse remains on hold as the New Milford Historical Society & Museum still needs funding to move forward and has struggled raising money while grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic/
The historical society has been looking to move the building from its current location on Sullivan Road to the museum’s Aspetuck Avenue campus since 2015, when historical society members first pitched the idea to the town.
“The town thought it was a great idea,” said Loretta Kretchko, first vice president of the historical society and chairman of its schoolhouse committee. “We’re now on year seven of this planning and we’ve made a lot of strides, but we need money and contractors.”
The biggest bump in the road, she said, has been the COVID-19 pandemic.
Built in 1843, the Hill and Plain one-room schoolhouse operated for 97 years before closing in 1940. Located on the property of Sullivan Farms, it was later donated to the historical society by Ruth M. Sullivan in 1985.
The donation, however, came with stipulations — one being that it could not be moved from its original site.
Kretchko said Sullivan wanted the schoolhouse to remain at its original location and for the New Milford Historical Society & Museum to use it for educational purposes.
After acquiring the building, the historical society did just that — holding programs and open house events at the schoolhouse to educate people on what life was like back in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Doing that, though, has gotten difficult.
“The main focus is to use it for education and have programs in the schoolhouse, and being in the center of town would be a lot more conducive to doing that versus being all the way out on Sullivan Road,” Kretchko said.
“Being out there is bad for the museum because we can’t monitor it,” she said. “We have a part-time curator who can’t close the main museum to go over and supervise an educational program at the schoolhouse.”
Considering that, as well as the lack of ample parking at its current site, the historical society’s schoolhouse committee agreed that the museum’s downtown campus would be a better place for the one-room schoolhouse.
“It would be in the best interest of what the donor intended — for us to use it for educational purposes and such — and to move the schoolhouse, we had to get those deed restrictions lifted,” Kretchko said.
By the end of 2020, the restrictions were lifted and the zoning board approved the historical society’s plans to move the schoolhouse.
As part of an agreement, Kretchko said the historical society cannot sell the property and will place a historic marker at the Sullivan Road site stating that the Hill and Plain Schoolhouse once stood there.
Since getting the town’s approval in December 2020, though, not much has happened.
“We met with movers and started consulting with the contractors, but we’re now at a complete standstill,” Kretchko said. “We interviewed a few licensed and insured contractors, but nothing has come to fruition because of COVID.”
Not only have contractors become high-demand, she said, but the historical society doesn’t currently have enough money to fund the relocation project.
As a nonprofit, Kretchko said the New Milford Historical Society & Museum gets all its funding from grants, membership fees and donations — and the organization has been in financial straits due to the COVID pandemic.
With funding general operations and expenses top priority for the last two years, she said the historical society’s fundraising efforts for the schoolhouse move have been put on the back burner.
“The only reason fundraising for the schoolhouse hasn’t been going on is because the museum is struggling due to the pandemic,” Kretchko said. “COVID has left the museum in need of financial support, so all our fundraising energy has gone into getting grants and donations for the museum itself to keep it afloat.”
Kretchko said at least $200,000 is needed for the move, reconstruction and restoration of the Hill and Plain Schoolhouse.
Although she’s unsure how much was raised before COVID, Kretchko said the historical society did manage to raise enough money to secure the schoolhouse at its present site.
“We had to put a new roof on it and take down a tree that was going to fall on the schoolhouse,” she said, noting that the tree was removed free of charge by New Milfordbased A&A Tree Service.
The Hill and Plain oneroom schoolhouse is one of several buildings owned by the New Milford Historical Society & Museum.
“We’re a big museum with a lot of property and building to maintain, and that is what any fundraising or grants for this year — and the foreseeable future — are going toward,” Kretchko said. “Unless someone comes forward wanting to fund the move of the schoolhouse, it remains on the back burner for now.”
With fundraising on hold until further notice, Kretchko said the best hope for the schoolhouse is for someone to make a $200,000 donation specifically to fund the relocation project.
“We need a benefactor,” she said. “We need somebody willing to fund the move of the schoolhouse.”
Information on the historical society’s efforts to relocate the Hill and Plain one-room schoolhouse can be found at nmhistorical.org/save-thehill-and-plain-schoolhouse.