The Henry Bird Homestead, built in 1835 and included in the National Register of Historic Places, is on track to be renovated and reopened to the public.
The Milton Point Conservancy, which manages the Greek Revival home for the City of Rye, has received a $172,000 challenge grant to “support the continued restoration” of the structure. The grant was made by the New York State Historic Preservation Office, in conjunction with the state Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
The city bought the house in 2009 with $1.2 million in charitable donations, preventing the structure from being demolished for development.
The state grant is contingent on the conservancy, formerly known as Save the Bird Homestead, raising matching funds. The grant would reimburse the conservancy for half of the renovation costs. So far the Conservancy has raised $18,000 and “is now seeking additional donations to meet the remaining funding obligation,” said its new president and board chairman, Peter Romano.
The grant is to be used to restore the exterior of the house, including replacement of damaged cedar siding, painting, window and shutter repairs, and masonry repointing. The conservancy hopes that a later phase will permit interior renovations to create education and research space. Later work could include rehabilitation of Henry Bird’s workshop and barn.
Five generations of the Bird family grew up in the home, which along with its adjoining farm building, is set in a pastoral, park-like setting on Milton Road bordering the Blind Brook. Members of the family include the longtime Rye librarian Alice Bird and the legendary archeologist Junius Bird (viewed as the model for Indiana Jones).
The Bird house and farmstead, representative of the many small farms common in 19th century Rye, is one of three properties managed by the newly-renamed Milton Point Conservancy.
The new name reflects the organization’s management and maintenance of three historic properties in the Milton section of Rye. Those include the Rye Meetinghouse, also known as Grace Chapel, the historic small church once home to a branch of Christ’s Church and later a Quaker meetinghouse.
The chapel was home to Rye’s first lending library and enabled Milton Point residents to attend religious service in the 1870s, when road conditions made travel to Christ’s Church difficult. It was convenient, as well, for the working-class residents of Milton, including formerly-enslaved African Americans.
The conservancy plans to address deferred Meetinghouse maintenance as well, including replacing damaged wooden siding, interior plaster, and stained glass windows. Repairs to the steeple will permit the building’s bell to ring once again.
“Both the Henry Bird Homestead and the Rye Meetinghouse represent an invaluable part of Rye’s history and the broader heritage of New York state,” said Romano, a Greenhaven resident with a professional background in construction management. “Preserving these sites is essential to ensuring that Rye’s cultural and historical significance is not lost to environmental factors or future development.”
Also managed by the conservancy is land between the meetinghouse and the Bird homestead that was the site of the home and inn owned by William Voris, a pioneering African American entrepreneur who is believed to have fled slavery in New Jersey and prospered in Rye.
The conservancy envisions the group of structures as a “hands-on learning center” that can provide lessons in historic preservation, the paleontology and archaeology of the Bird family, and exposure to seaside ecology.
Romano hopes exterior renovation work on the Bird house will begin in six weeks.
Photos by Alison Rodilosso
