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06/07/2017 08:30 AMIn 1958, an intrepid group of residents calling themselves the Guilford Keeping Society (GKS) made a bit of history of their own by purchasing the Colonial-era Thomas Griswold House. On Saturday, June 17, Fran Sweitlicki will help present-day members and fans of GKS celebrate the society’s 70th anniversary with a fundraising gala on the Griswold’s beautiful grounds.
Fran is one half of the “dynamic duo” of GKS Fund Development and gives huge props to her development partner and gala event co-organizer, Peter Mousch. Following a very successful GKS Wine Tasting they organized with Frank’s Package Store for GKS last year, Frank’s offered to help GKS plan more events just like it. That got the wheels turning, says Fran.
“Peter thought it would be great to have something with sparkling wine and champagne, and I thought, we have a 70th birthday coming—tie them both together,” she says.
As they began planning for gala, ideas and details began to bubble up, including finding more than one way to tie the celebration to its champagne theme.
“Peter has a cousin that lives in France who works for a champagne house and we’re going to have that champagne represented at this tasting. And for the Silent Auction, the champagne house is also giving us a bottle of champagne that’s very rare and not sold in this country.”
The June 17 gala celebration takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. on tented grounds beside the iconic Griswold House, where guests will enjoy champagne, sparkling wine, hors d’oeuvres to complement the wines, along with the added excitement and fun of a wine pull, which is a kind of wine raffle. There will be a silent auction as well. Five distributors will donate their time and wines.
Gala tickets are $50 in advance, $60 day of (with advance purchase strongly recommended) for guests 21 and over. To get your tickets, visit www.guilfordkeepingsociety.com, the Griswold House, 171 Boston Street, during museum hours, or event supporter Frank’s Package Store, 15 Boston Street, or call 203-453-2263.
For Fran, part of the 70th anniversary of GKS means paying tribute to the visionary residents who first took it upon themselves to rally to the rescue of Guilford’s New England Colonial roots, at a time when historic homes weren’t as cherished as they are today.
“After [World War II], the people that were living here in town [said] ‘Let’s get involved and try to preserve and save some of these structures, because they’re very important,’” says Fran. “And for 11 years, they were without a museum, until they bought the Thomas Griswold House.”
Just recently, GKS received a very special birthday gift in time for the 70th anniversary of ownership of the Thomas Griswold House.
“We had a dendrochronologist here who did testings and discovered the building is actually 10 years older than we thought,” says Fran (a dendrochronologist studies tree growth rings to track the tree’s age).
The Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory’s detailed report of findings on the age of timbers in the Thomas Griswold puts the origins of the house at 1764. The scientist came to town from England’s Oxford University thanks to a grant from the Guilford Preservation Alliance.
Support from local organizations make a huge contribution to GKS and its mission to collect, preserve, and share the history and heritage of Guilford for present and future generations. In addition to the Griswold House Museum, GKS owns and maintains the 1803 Medad Stone Tavern museum at 197 Three Mile Course (bequeathed to GKS in 2001). Like many GKS members, Fran says she and Peter have a special place in their hearts for the Griswold House.
“Peter and I both think it’s the flagship, because it’s the first, and then we inherited the Medad Stone Tavern,” she says. “We tend to have more fundraising events at the tavern, because it lends itself to them so well. But we have a beautiful field here, why not have a tent in the field and just celebrate?”
Event sponsors include Guilford Savings Bank and Guilford Foundation.
“There’s a lot of partnering that goes on to make events like these a success, and we feel that support from the community,” says Fran.
Fran and Peter also want to thank their “Gala Gang,” the committee of GKS members helping to pull the party together. As one of the Gala’s Silent Auction offerings, the gang will give a dinner at the tavern for eight. Among the many amazing items will be another auction offering that ties back to GKS and its mission: a hearth cooking class.
“We’re always trying to find ways to get people to be more conscious of what we’re doing, and we have so many supporters that I think it’s important for them to see what we can offer. It’s also important for them to see what we’ve done and where we need help. For example, we’d love to have more volunteers,” says Fran.
Fran began volunteering with GKS in 2001. In 2011, encouraged by Peter, she joined the GKS Board of Directors.
“I had been helping with different [GKS] events, and I think he felt I would fit in with the group,” she says.
Fran and Peter had worked together in past, as teacher and student. Fran taught art classes at Guilford High School for more than 30 years, retiring as Art Department chair in 1997.
“Peter is a former student, so we get along,” she says. “I had been his teacher and was also his class advisor—he graduated in 1972,” says Fran.
These days, Peter is an in-demand event planner.
Even though Fran moved to Guilford in 1965 to take the teaching job, she says with a laugh, “I still consider myself a newcomer!”
As an educator, Fran embraces the educational mission of GKS.
“An important part of what we do is being stewards of Guilford’s rich history, and working to really help to promote our history and our heritage through events and with a great emphasis on education, and I think we’re moving even more toward the educational aspect, with Early Guilford Days and summer camp and lectures. It’s very exciting,” says Fran.
As an artist, she appreciates the intrinsic value historic homes such as the Thomas Griswold House lend to their surrounds.
“When the house was built, this part of road was the Post Road and it was a gateway to Guilford. There used to be an elm tree here; people looked for it. The house is on a knoll, the grounds are beautiful, it’s all very picturesque. It’s one of the most photographed historic homes in New England.”