Historic Eastford Farm Preserved by ECHPC
EASTFORD — It’s hard to top Paul Blair’s 30-plus acre farm on Route 171 in Eastford as a picture-perfect postcard example of a New England farm. The property is one of the prettiest spots in Eastford. The farm was purchased by Paul’s immigrant grandparents in 1908 and operated as a dairy farm for many years. Paul grew up there and has lived there most of his life and has a great affection for the property.
A couple of years ago, the Eastford Conservation and Historic Preservation Commission (ECHPC) mailed letters to many significant property holders in Eastford to ask if they had an interest in conserving their properties against future development by means of a conservation easement. A conservation easement is a restriction placed upon a property deed which restricts future development by any subsequent purchaser. The ECHPC offered to help any interested landowner search for funding and/or assist with a conservation effort in other ways.
Paul answered the ECHPC letter, and together with the ECHPC sought out funding for a conservation easement. Paul’s property qualified for potential funding under the State of Connecticut’s Department of Agriculture’s Farmland Preservation Program. The ECHPC worked with Paul to submit an application and helped him through the lengthy evaluation process.
Fortunately, the property was selected by the state for farmland conservation, and recently Paul was awarded some funding, in exchange for which he placed qualifications on the property deed restricting the larger share of the property to farming only activity in perpetuity. Thus, the pretty farm property we all drive by on Route 171 will remain picture postcard perfect into the long-term future and will continue to mark Eastford as a quintessential New England town.
- Submitted by Tom Hughes, ECHPC member
