Community Corner

A Tour of East Lyme's Samuel Smith House

The Town of East Lyme is considering buying this historic property for $425,000 to preserve it as a museum. Here's a look at the property, inside and out.

 

Visitors arrived at a steady clip to see the historic Samuel Smith House at 82 Plants Dam Road in East Lyme yesterday.

Volunteers from the Samuel Smith CORE group, an organization that has been lobbying hard for the town of East Lyme to buy the property, was giving tours from 2 to 4 p.m. and a lot of people were curious to see what the house was like inside. 

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"This is a serious jewel and it's not really a jewel in the rough," said Jeffrey Lassow, who marveled over the smallest details, from the blacksmith forged sliding locks on the doors to the workmanship of the feather-edged panels on the walls.

Like many of the visitors on Sunday, Lassow has a passion for all things historic. He owns two historic homes, one in Tolland that dates to 1795 and a cottage from the 1800s at Crescent Beach in East Lyme. Still, he noted, it's not often you see a house that has been virtually unchanged since 1685. 

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Should The Town Buy The Property? 

East Lyme Board of Selectmen is still discussing whether the town should buy the house, which sits on 17-acres of farmland that is also believed to contain two Native American mounds and the family dump. 

First Selectman Paul Formica has been empowered by the Board of Selectmen to make the deal at the agreed upon price of $425,000, if voters approve it. The 24-member Samuel Smith CORE group is planning to apply for a $200,000 matching state grant that would be used to reimburse the town, but the conditions of the grant require that the town buy the property first. 

The East Lyme Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on the issue on Wednesday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m. The Samuel Smith CORE group will be holding an informational meeting just before that, at 6:15 p.m. at East Lyme Town Hall.

If you want to see firsthand what the property looks like, volunteers will be offering tours of the Samuel Smith House on Wednesdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. through September. 


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