In 1926, the Rev. Dr. Goodwin, rector of the Bruton Parish Church in the run-down college town of Williamsburg, Va., shared his dream of preserving the city's historic buildings with John D. Rockefeller Jr., and the now epic "buy-out" and restoration of the Colonial capital of Virginia began.

But until as late as 1995, the Cary Peyton Armistead house, a Victorian, built in 1890, sat at the east end of Duke of Gloucester Street in front of the Colonial Capitol confounding tourists to the town.
Please circle the item that does not belong in this picture.

The house has since been moved to a new location on Henry Street.

The center of Chadds Ford as well as the Route 1 corridor to the east, comes under the classification of an Historic District, and as such, is over-seen by the Historic Architectural Review Board, fondly known as The HARB.

According to a brochure recently put out by the Chadds Ford Township, a HARB District is a state certified district within a municipality, which has distinctive character recalling the architectural and historical heritage of that area.

When the board of the Sanderson Museum, where I am president, decided to restore our tired little museum, we had a decision to make. Should we restore and interpret it as it was when Chris Sanderson and his mother lived there (1937 - 1966) when it was a run-down rental property, or restore it to its glory of the mid 1800's when the Harvey's and later the Bullocks lived there? We chose the latter.

This also meant that the restorations of the shutters, the colors and sign restoration would have to come before the HARB.

With visions of the Spanish Inquisition in my head, I was already quaking
and going into one of my famous silent freak-outs.

So my second in command and partner in crime, Sue Minarchi and I took photos and collected supporting information for a preliminary meeting with the HARB in April just to introduce ourselves and to ask for advice. Not only was the HARB enthusiastic about the project but gave us ideas and sources for 19th c. style shutters and paint colors.

By the June meeting, Sue had the application and presentation ready. HARB
member Kathy Wandersee even brought out a book of shutter styles showing us
the louvered shutters on the top floor for air circulation and solid shutters on the ground floor. I had learned something I did not know. All went well and the HARB voted unanimously to recommend that the Township Board of Supervisors issue a Certificate of Appropriateness.

The last step was attending the July Township Supervisors meeting.
Building Inspector, Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer, Richard Jensen looked at the application with a serious look and said, "Well, of course we can't approve this."

Our hearts fell - what could have gone wrong?
Picking up on the inside joke, Supervisor George Thorpe said "But I like their blue..."

"All in favor...."

It was unanimous. We had our certificate.

When Sue and I high -fived each other the Supervisors asked if we were voting too.

The HARB is there to help. Listen to them. Use them. They're not scary. Really!