Julia Bauer earned one of the awards for preservation. Courtesy | Bob Sawyer
The Hillsdale Historical Society presented awards for the restoration, preservation, and beautification of two nineteenth-century homes and the Old Litchfield Cemetery Oct. 27.
The awards are designed to recognize people who took steps to preserve, restore, and generally improve the condition of a historic element of their community.
The first house to win a Preservation Award was built in 1870 by the Watkins family, who lived in the house for five generations, said Marie Williams, the mother-in-law of the house’s current owner, Dr. Ed Sutherland.
After Sutherland’s wife, Anna Williams ’11, died six years ago, Marie Williams said her son-in-law wanted to raise his children on a farm. Sutherland bought a farmhouse on 240 acres of land located about halfway between Hillsdale and Coldwater, the city where he worked, according to Williams.
Sutherland restored and added bathrooms, staircases, electricity, and other new features. He also added a wraparound porch to the house and, in the future, hopes to renovate the kitchen and build a carriage house that can serve as a garage, Williams said.
The second house, built in 1867, was the childhood home of the current owner, Julia Bauer.
“My dream was always to remodel the house,” Bauer said.
Bauer’s grandparents had bought the farm from a local, but Bauer said no one ever put any money into it.
In addition to gutting the house from top to bottom, a process that filled up 15 dumpsters, Bauer said she was able to add a wraparound porch — a longtime dream of hers — and make various repairs and upgrades to the walls, electricity, plumbing, and more.
The Hillsdale Historical Society also presented a restoration award to the Lightfield Area Historical Society for the preservation of the Old Litchfield Cemetery.
The cemetery’s rows of graves include Civil War soldiers, said Robert Kline, a board member of the Hillsdale Historical Society, but had been neglected over the years.
The cemetery’s restoration was initiated by Larry Gagnon, who died last summer.
“I can’t even tell you the amount of passion he had for the cemetery,” said Oaklee Gagnon, Larry Gagnon’s wife.
Larry Gagnon invited Bobbie Mathis, a cemetery preservationist and member of the Union City Society for Historic Preservation, to take a look at the Litchfield Cemetery.
Because the Litchfield Cemetery was last used around 1892, Mathis said special types of lime and other materials had to be sourced from companies such as Atlas Preservation in order to restore the tombstones while maintaining period accuracy.
“Every stone needs a different type of fix,” Mathis said.
Sandra Thomas, president of the Litchfield Area Historical Society, expressed her confidence in the value of the work she and the other members of the society are doing.
“Somebody up there is watching and really appreciates what we’re doing,” Thomas said.
