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The Community Raises a New Roof at the Hyland House

In November, Guilford’s Hyland House Museum completed a major restoration project: a new cedar shingle roof. The new roof was funded by the museum’s local supporters and generous grants from the Guilford Preservation Alliance and the 1772 Foundation in cooperation with the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. The new roof was installed by National Roofing. The contractor, led by president Jeff Beeman, also made an in-kind contribution to the project.

In 2017, an annual inspection, led by architect and Hyland House board member Teresa Buchanan, identified serious deterioration of the roof. It needed to be replaced to prevent any damage to the house and its museum collection. Buchanan and board member Linda Reich organized a successful fundraiser in October 2017. The Jazz & Art by Sea dinner and auction event was attended by almost 150 local supporters. The Guilford Preservation Alliance, led by president Shirley Girioni, also came forward with a generous grant from its Hugh McK. Jones Trust Fund for Historic Preservation. The 1772 Foundation provided the final matching funds for the project.

The two-story saltbox structure, built in 1713, has long been recognized as an important building deserving of careful preservation. The National Registry of Historic Places praised it as “a landmark building in the history of domestic architecture.” In recent years, archaeologists from the University of Oxford, preservationists from the University of Massachusetts’s Historic Preservation Program, and members of the Timber Framers Guild have studied the house. To Guilford school children, the house is best known for co-hosting Early Guilford Days and for its collaboration with the Witness Stones Project. The Hyland House is an inviting gateway to New England’s colonial history.

Hyland House Museum President Bob Donahue noted that the entire museum board is very grateful that “as the house begins its second century as a museum, it is still so valued and supported by our community.”