The DAR House recently canvassed the neighborhood with the following:
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
THE DAR HOUSE built in 1753 is a standing monument in the South Street Neighborhood. It is seen every day by hundreds of people who drive and walk past the house on their way to work, school and shopping. The home was built by the Clapp family and was continually inhabited by a family member until 1929. It is the second oldest home in the neighborhood and one of only a handful of pre-revolutionary historic houses left in Northampton. The DAR House is on the National Register.
The DAR has been your neighbor for many years and we’d like to think we have been good neighbors. At our first Holiday Open House this winter, most of our visitors were neighbors who had never seen the inside of the House. We hope to make this an annual event. Again, next fall we plan holding a second genealogy workshop open to the public. At the end of March, we held our annual DAR Good Citizens Awards presenting certificates and $100.00 Savings Bonds to three outstanding area high school students – the House was full that night with student’s families, friends and DAR members.
It would be impossible not to notice that the house badly needs painting. Painting and re-glazing our windows are critical for maintaining the exterior integrity of the house. We also have a wish list of other projects we’d like to implement if we had the funds to do so. However, the rising cost of heating oil over the past four years has nearly depleted our very modest endowment fund.
We are hard at work on a CPA application for restoration work, and we’ve learned that demonstrating neighborhood support and leveraging other funds will strengthen our application. That’s where we hope we can count on you, our neighbors. Please consider a gift of any size to our effort to paint the DAR house. We have found a painter who loves the house and is sharply discounting the work, so we only need to raise $5000. We are non-profit organization, so any gift is fully tax-deductible.
Thank you for helping. A freshly painted DAR House
will enhance the entire neighborhood (and the city)!
Please write checks to: Betty Allen Chapter, DAR, Inc. and mail to:
C/o Karen Tatro, 188 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060
If you have any questions, please call or email Karen at 584-7746, pinkertontatro@yahoo.com
