Printer Friendly Version - Ellen Ebert: Helping Share Guilford’s History

Ellen Ebert stands in front of the distinctive Dan Collins House, 1772, at 21 Whitfield Street. Ellen chaired a committee that installed story plaques (such as the one shown here) on several historic buildings around the Guilford Green.

After moving to Guilford about 12 years ago, Ellen Ebert knew she wanted to find a way to pursue her passion of history, and the Guilford Preservation Alliance (GPA) proved to be a perfect match. One of her neighbors was the president at the time and encouraged Ellen to join. She has now been on the board for about 10 years.

“It’s fun and there is such enthusiasm for trying out things that will benefit the town,” says Ellen. “I joined and fell in love.”

According to its website, www.guilfordpreservation.org, the GPA’s mission is to “preserve and protect the built and natural heritage of the town of Guilford.”

In addition to sponsoring education forums, providing financial assistance for restoration and preservation projects, and publishing historical guides, the GPA introduced historic walking tours of Guilford and placing “story plaques” about Guilford history on some of the lampposts on the Green.

“It’s always fun to know more, and that’s how I got into these plaques,” says Ellen, “I rubberneck still at the dates on some of the buildings. I really enjoyed the plaques with 50- to 60-word descriptions, but it seemed fun to have them right on the buildings.”

As a joint project with the Guilford Keeping Society, a committee was created to add “story plaques” to several historic buildings around the Green with Ellen as chair. The project is known as the Schmitt Project as Dede Schmitt, the first president of the GPA, donated funds in memorie of his late wife, Marjorie. Other committee members include Carl Balestracci, Jr., Joel Helander, Dennis Culliton, Cathryn Frydenborg, and Ellie Green.

“The committee meetings have been so much fun,” says Ellen. “We get together and exchange wonderful stories and wrote the texts for the first 10 plaques.”

Of the first 10 plaques created, nine are hanging with the plaque at Guilford Savings Bank waiting for the construction to be completed before it can be hanged (see sidebar for a full list of plaque locations).

“Our hope is that people would see them and request them for their buildings,” says Ellen. “Six more are already in the making.”

While an organization devoted to preserving history, the GPA is embracing new technnology to achieve its goals. There is room on each of the plaques for QR codes that will be programmed with old photos of the buildings and more history. The GPA is creating a digital information kiosk next to the Community Center. Culliton is working with Virginia Gresham, a student at Connecticut College, to develop self-guided walking tours with the QR codes.

“We’re start with the plaques we have and continue to add to it,” says Ellen. “People will be able to load the information at the kiosk for the entire tour. This has huge possibilities.”

Ellen has enjoyed learning the history of her new hometown over the past decade, finding several ties to her past hometowns that have included Cincinatti, Maryland, Boston, and most recently Nashville. Ellen and her husband, Michael, moved to Guilford when Michael was hired as the chief medical officer at the VA in West Haven.

“In Tennessee, we had a lot of Civil War battlefields, but to see 1639 on a house—that’s pretty impressive; you don’t see that in Cincinnati or Nashville,” says Ellen. “We’ve also seen connections. We now live down the street from the Beecher House, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s father’s house, but she was also in Cincinnati.”

When moving from Nashville to Connecticut, the Eberts weren’t sure where they wanted to settle, but after seeing a young girl dancing in a cookie costume at a Girl Scout cookie booth while eating at Cilantro’s, Ellen knew she found her new hometown.

“Seeing that, you could just see this was a friendly place and it was a pleasure to drive down the streets here,” says Ellen. “We got very attached to Guilford, especially the center of town and knew we wanted to be near the center and the old, beautiful buildings. You get off the interstate in Guilford and you’re in a very special place. That’s something that drew us here and to the Green.”

Ellen has enjoyed getting to know the history of each of the places she has lived, as well as her vacation property in Cornucopia, Wisconsin on Lake Superior where she is involved with the Historic Region that was founded in 1900.

“They have quite a different kind of history there,” says Ellen, who enjoys their 40 acres of woods. “We have a lot of different animals there that we like to take care of.”

In addition to pursuing her passion of photography, she also enjoys photography and art, as well as spending time with her three children and seven grandchildren, who live in Boston, Baltimore, and Minneapolis.

For now, while in Guilford, Ellen will continue working on the story plaques with the GPA, as well as other projects, including a photo exhibit at the new train station and the information kiosk.

“Our aim is to retain the heritage of Guilford—it’s a very unique place and the Preservation Alliance supports these things and other initiatives.

For information on obtaining a story plaques, contact Ellen Ebert at 203-453-6353 or ellenebert@aol.com.

1822 Major Jedediah Lathrop House — 55 Park Street (Board of Education building)

1858 James Monroe Store — 9 Boston Street (middle building of Page’s Hardware)

1844 Former Abolitionist Third Congregational Church — Park Street (Christian Scientist Church)