The Historic District Commission is considering making 88 Roseville Road a historic property. It was built in 1860. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
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The Westport Historic District Commission is embarking on another study to move towards designating another property as historic under the town’s ordinance.
Town officials have hired Associated Cultural Resource Consultants to study the history of 88 Roseville Road in a step towards designating the property. It was built in 1860.
Earlier this month, the Representative Town Meeting approved the designation of 113 Cross Highway as a local historical property. In the last year, the RTM has also designated 99 Myrtle Avenue, which is owned by the town, as historical and created the Gorham Avenue and Violet Lane historic districts.
Morley Boyd, Historic District Commission, said the woman who owns the property is a senior citizen and plans to sell it soon.
Her house is one of the last farmhouses on Roseville Road, he said, and she does not want to see it torn down.
“Roseville has been particularly hard hit by aggressive redevelopment,” he said. “There is no notable architectural merit to the house, but it is an example of a house that was once common on Roseville. It’s about capturing the cultural significance of our agricultural past.”
The genealogy of the people who have also lived in the house is as thick as a telephone book, Boyd said, and some of the families are some of the more historically notable families of Westport.
The house is linked to a family—the Brothertons—who are connected to the Bradley House on Sturges Highway and the Meeker House on Cross Highway, he said.
“The tapestry that exists under the surface of these homes is quite amazing,” he said.
