Preservation in Action: Ten Stories of Stewardship: Restoration, Rehabilitation, Renovation, Adaptation, and Reuse

A one-of-a-kind tour through exquisitely preserved, chronicled and illustrated historic buildings

Preservation in Action is the first publication that tells the compelling story of Old Wethersfield, Connecticut’s largest and oldest historic district in its oldest town. Based on original research, with stunning photography and handsome design, through ten examples of restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, adaptation, and reuse, it demonstrates the community’s efforts over more than a century to preserve the architectural legacy of its historic village, through individual and institutional commitments, civic planning decisions, historic preservation, and design review.

The examples range from the oldest house in town, with a 17th century addition added thirty years ago, to a 19th century commercial building whose greenhouse was repurposed as a cafe in 2022 and includes the town’s old high school whose redevelopment, in a bold partnership between the Town and the Historical Society, together with the Society’s redevelopment of another town owned building, has spurred the economic revival of the old village.

ANNE CROFOOT KUCKRO (1945-2010) was a historian and preservationist whose books include Hartford Architecture, Volume One: Downtown (1978); Captain James Francis, Master Builder: Brick Architecture in Wethersfield before 1840 (1974); and Wethersfield: A Tour of Houses and History (1984).