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Owner of Antique Home on Valley Road Applies for Demolition Permit

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Saying it’s too expensive to maintain and insure a vacant, antique house in northeastern New Canaan, the property’s owners on Monday filed an application to demolish it. The first taxing district of Norwalk has no immediate plans for the ca. 1750-built house and 4-acre property it owns at 1124 Valley Road, according to James Fulton, an attorney who serves as trustee for the district. “If someone offers us enough money, they can buy the whole property with the house on it, too,” Fulton told NewCanaanite.com. “But for the amount of money that some people think the property is worth and are willing to pay, it is actually worth more to the district to keep it for its future use.

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‘A Beacon of New Canaan History’: Closely Watched Valley Road Antique Hits Market at $2.25 Million

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A ca. 1750 home that New Canaan open space advocates and historic preservationists have been watching closely for several months hit the market this week at $2.25 million. The “Grupe-Nichols-Brown House” at 1124 Valley Road—itself a well-preserved antique structure—also sits on 4.43 acres adjacent to a large, accessible New Canaan Land Trust property that fronts Grupes Reservoir. It’s owned by the first taxing district of Norwalk. Chris Schipper, president of the Land Trust, called the house “a beacon of New Canaan history.”

“It has stood there for over 250 years and is at the center of what was once a 200-acre farm that extended all the way across the Wilton line, so it is definitely an important preservationist property,” Schipper said.

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Open Space Advocates, Preservationists Eye 4.43-Acre Property with ca. 1750 Home That May Soon Hit the Market

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The owner of a ca. 1750 home on 4.43 acres on upper Valley Road says that the structure may soon go on the market—a noteworthy prospect for historic preservationists as well as the New Canaan Land Trust, which owns and maintains walking trails on an abutting property that also fronts the Grupes Reservoir. The first taxing district of Norwalk purchased 1124 Valley Road in February 2006 for $2.25 million, with the idea that it may move to that site an inconspicuous treatment plant now located near Silver Hill Hospital, according to James Fulton, the district’s attorney and owner of the parcel, as trustee. “We bought it and over the years, the more we considered it, we decided it probably wouldn’t be cost-effective to use it as part of the utility operation, which is why for years we’ve rented it out to residential tenants,” Fulton said. Though the district hasn’t made any firm decisions, “we are considering marketing the property for sale,” he added.