Around Town

Historic Home On Main Street Still Stuck In Foreclosure Proceedings?

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The vacant, deteriorating, Greek Revival-style home at 4 Main St. may stay vacant and deteriorating for a while longer, as an apparent procedural error in state court has resulted in a delay in foreclosure proceedings. The case is headed to state appellate court, a July 22 court filing obtained by NewCanaanite shows. Last year, Frank Lieto, an attorney with Goldman Gruder and Woods, who is representing the homeowner, Dr. James Talbot, successfully argued in superior court that because a declaration of default had been entered by the court clerk two days prematurely – prior to the end of the mediation period – that the court’s subsequent actions to proceed with strict foreclosure were invalid and thus should be vacated. Lieto is requesting that arguments in the foreclosure proceedings be re-heard.

Government

Louise’s Lane Man Seeks To Remove Apostrophe-S from Street Name, Sign

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New Canaan traffic officials said Tuesday that they received a request from a Louise’s Lane man to remove the apostrophe-S from the street’s name and sign. The resident also asked whether a more decorative sign than the standard white-lettering-on-green could be installed at the head of the short, dead-end lane that runs south off of upper Oenoke Ridge Road, according to Police Capt. John DiFederico. “He has two requests—one was to change the name to just ‘Louise Lane,’ and the other was to change the street sign itself to make it more decorative and appealing,” DiFederico said at a meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group, an administrative team of police, public works, emergency management and fire officials that fields such requests. One of the reasons that New Canaan would be careful about pursuing any change to a street name—even one of punctuation—is that the names themselves have been carefully selected (see a full database here of the history of New Canaan street names). In the case of Louise’s Lane, according to a 1960 annual of the New Canaan Historical Society, the street “was laid out in 1950 and named for the late Louise Warren Higley.”

A look through the files at the New Canaan Historical Society shows that Higley was the wife of the ultra-prominent and influential Stuart Higley, of Brotherhood & Higley renown, and was a woman who died at a rather young age after marrying into a New Canaan family when she was 29.

News

Preservationists: We Will Purchase Antique Ferris Hill Road Home Slated for Demolition

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The historic 1735-built Ferris Hill Road home slated for demolition June 1 will be spared because the group of preservationists that formed to save it will purchase the property with an eye on selling it on to a like-minded future owner, officials say. Between funds raised and a generous dollar-for-dollar pledge from a town resident, the 8 Ferris Hill Road Group has enough money now to enter into a contract with the widely discussed 2.14-acre property’s owner, according to New Canaan’s Tom Nissley. “The upshot is that the history of New Canaan is upheld with some integrity,” said Nissley, acting chairperson of the group. “It just would be wrong to eradicate that house and what it represents in the development of the town.”

On the radar of preservationists since it sold in November 2013 for $1,250,000, and a plan to develop the property soon emerged, the so-called “Hoyt-Burwell-Morse House” has been continuously occupied for 280 years, historians say. Its owner has said he regrets purchasing the property at all, believing that neighbors would back his idea of preserving the old house while building a new one.