The historic Smith-Curtiss House, in Osborndale State Park in Derby, is being offered as the first project for renovation and restoration under the state's new "resident curator" program -- which is designed to preserve historic buildings in state parks and forests that the state is unable to maintain or use.
The program -- modeled after projects in Massachusetts, Maryland and Delaware State Parks -- allows individuals, organizations or businesses to enter a 20- to 25-year lease of a historic building on state property. Twenty properties have been identified as eligible, and two to four are to be offered for lease each year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The Smith-Curtiss House, built around 1840, was purchased by Frances Osborne Kellogg, a businesswoman, philanthropist and environmentalist, as part of her 350-acre dairy farm and land-conservation holdings. Before her death in 1956, she deeded the property to the state as a public park.