Carl Rothbart

New Museum Planned for Park Street To Focus on Historic Preservation 

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Town officials on Thursday heard more details on plans to convert a well-known Park Street home into a museum focused primarily on historic preservation. 

Once the home of the great Scribners editor Maxwell Perkins, the Greek Revival at 63 Park St. will house a philanthropic organization and feature exhibits and lectures, according to Wilton-based architect William Earls. “It being so walkable in the center of town and also so close to the Historical Society—and also not only is the house itself so much part of that program but having, of course, the Glass House and Fred Noyes’s house and Grace Farms—all seemed to have this happy synergy with David’s intent there,” Earls told members of the Historic District Commission at their May 28 meeting, held via videoconference. 

He referred to David Peterson, principal of the limited liability company that purchased the ca.-1836 house and its .33 acres for nearly $2.5 million in November 2018. The town in March received a building permit for an estimated $750,000 interior renovation on the structure. Because the project involves some exterior changes to parts of the building that are visible from the public street, the Commission’s approval also is required.

Around Town

Proposal in Works To Make Celebrated ‘Noyes House’ in New Canaan Publicly Available

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One of New Canaan’s most architecturally significant homes could become yet another major draw for visitors to the town, under a broad vision sketched out by the owners of the residence and local volunteers seeking to boost the economy and tourism here. Harvard-trained architect and industrial designer Eliot Noyes—one of the “Harvard Five” who settled in New Canaan in the 1940s and created some of its world-renowned Midcentury Modern homes—designed the Country Club Road house for his own family. At its most recent meeting, the local Tourism and Economic Development Advisory Committee or ‘TEDAC’ met with the architect’s son, Frederick Noyes, who is “actively for a way to not only preserve the house but also make it available to the public,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during a press briefing held Oct. 3 in his Town Hall office. “This would be one of the very first Midcentury Moderns, when Eliot Noyes came to New Canaan,” Moynihan said. 

“He came to New Canaan by mistake, almost by accident, because he was looking in Westport and wasn’t successful, so he came to New Canaan.

News

Letter: Son of ‘Harvard Five’ Architect Eliot Noyes in Praise of the River Building

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To the Editor:

What New Canaan has is extraordinary. Twice in the last 75 years the town has been on the cutting edge, moving forward, keeping current without losing the essence of unique New England traditions. The first began in the 1950’s spearheaded by the so-called Harvard Five’s Mid-Century Modern houses. The second is now with Grace Farms—a new type of public oriented facility. At first glance, the Mid-century Moderns seemed like a major break from wonderful Victorian houses of the 1800’s.