joe cornish and iris chin ponty joe specializes in historic buildings and works for historic new england he is cochairman of the belmont historic district commission and honorary director of the belmont historical society grew up in belmont and is president aponte consulting and director of the henry frost children's program and she lives and historic home on pleasant street which is also her place  you great for viewers who aren't familiar with the belmont historical plaque program can you tell them about it of course what it's all about the belmont historical society started its historic plaque program in two thousand and fourteen and we really wanted a way to raise awareness for historic structures in town and this was a great way to do that when you hold up one of those historic got this have our sample plaque which is available for viewing in our claflin room at the belmont historic public library right and this is the typical plaque size that you can get for your home what does it take to get it what how do you qualify we have an application process and we give plaques out twice a year at our annual meeting in may and at our december program and we have an application that's available through our website a property has to qualify by being part of the state historic preservation offices list of historic buildings oh really and that is something that we can help you find out whether or not your house is listed on that particular list we can also help you if your property is not listed ok do a chain of title search and help you research your property the property would have to be at least fifty years old and have integrity of its original design right and that's where we're going to segue to iris because iris qualified for one of these plaques you have one for your home  why don't you tell the viewers about this this very unusual special hall sure so that henry for us farmhouse was built an eighteen forty five minutes to charlie hundred seventy years old yeah i think a hundred and seventy five almost now and it's beautiful it's a greek revival home with queen and additions and when it went for sale we couldn't believe our luck my parents lived right up the street on toby and i grew up in dominant and when we were searching for an appropriate venue to hold both our residents and my two businesses it just fit the bill across the board and it needed a lot of work but lucky for us a lot of historic integrity was still intact so all we had a lot of work to do the house just lent itself to it in so many pieces of the home were so beautiful that it was a joy to restore so we've been living there now since two thousand and ten so we're and  year in my house we live there and it's also my preschool right had a frustrating program and my small consulting firm hey so it's been wonderful it's really great we're go cut to a clip shortly that will tell show viewers get it give you a sneak peek of the house if you haven't seen it but but before we do that can you tell them about the previous owner and what you learned and you actually learned it by going to the belmont historical and researching because you really want to know who lived in this house before me which i think is good to know it's so wonderful that and we have a claflin room at the libraries so before buying the property spent a lot of time looking in the archives and i was surprised to learn that a lot of the homes in belmont have a file and in that file that you'll see on the clip there's photographs there was a farm log there was a lot of documentation about the time where it was a fifteen acre farm and what it produced and it turned out that this farm had the largest supply of beets tomatoes salary and parsley and it's so wonderful to know that and it was also very interesting to see henry frost cutter had a very big role in the funding of this farm really as she did all the hiring and firing there is a summer where she had a lot of trouble with her teenage girls and she wrote extensively about this  her farm log and you learned all that just by going to the claflin room and look at that in the we brought a scanner and i got to scan old photographs to have with us in our house so it's and i wonder what resource that is it's important to iris that is the most beautiful home i think i really wish that when i was in preschool went to a preschool like that can you tell everyone what condition was the home in when you first laid eyes on it the house was beautiful a lot of it was intact however it needed a lot of work we had to refer bish all the floors in the house and we were really excited to find after living lifting up some old carpeting some handpiece parquet for the from the victorian era and we were so excited because it was you don't know is there any even know it was it was unbelievable and the mantle the hand carved mantel piece some of the foam marble behind the iron glass work spectacular so the potential was definitely there however it needed a lot of work and because we were bringing the house to regulation for a preschool we had to put in a hardwire fire surveillance valar and then the heating system so the whole house had baseboard heating everywhere and it was terrible because it really distracted from the original molding around the house that so beautiful so that was a very big job to take all of those  figure out the most fuel efficient way to get this house heated and cooled because it's big so that was a big job that was part of it what else would you say was one of the major things and you know getting into this yes that you have an idea of what the renovation involved was so that you could figure in pricing and all that yes we were very fortunate to work with two major building companies robert scott at cornerstone holmes and patrick redig greenidge they were really helpful in helping us organize our goals and how how to pace out the build projects there were certain things that had to get done immediately so that the school could open so we had a year and a half to meet that goal so we could have students arriving in september and there were other things that we could put off a little bit the kitchen was not ideal when we bought the house but then eventually after the school was open and we felt like we were ready then we ripped out the old skinny galley kitchen and put in a much more efficient kitchen for families down smalls right and there were unfortunately there was an old brick i think it was a laundry unit had a copper tub in it i was told that it was not for cooking and it looked like it would have to boil clothing to secure so unfortunately that had to come out and i grieved it for a little while but it wouldn't be great for my child and uses a diving board but yeah so it was a lot of work and and you have to make a lot of choices about how do you maintain the historical integrity of the house while also helping you meet it's the houses current needs right so we're always assessing and considering what projects to do next in plan tings and paint and their roof had to be redone so there is a lot of projects to do so it's really important to have builders that you trust that know what your goals are and share your style because if you don't it can really be a headache did it take you a while to find the right yes people to work with a lot of firing and rehiring a lot six different crews really and then now we're done i will not change will this ever again and you're happy you there on the one that's ball that's great tell tell our viewers about some of the treasures you found besides that unusual copper tub yeah so when we were renovating the attic to make sure all of the electricity was sound we opened up the floor of the attic and we couldn't believe our eyes hundreds of ears of dried out corey really and it turns out i do know this was common but it used for insulation and yes so there it was and i was not happy it's a huge fire hazard so we cleared it all out but we found treasures so i can show you a few things as we cleared out those ears of corn we found a marsh farms belmont pure milk cap which is kind of cool and do you think that was from what year i don't know if that was mostly the early twentieth century i would say wow treasures like antique roadshow then how right i did when we were putting in the new wrap around porch and making some adjustments to the porch we guess so people always ask what next what next and my house should have shutters it's a very big project it doesn't right now but we're hoping someday we save some of the original in the basement and we're hoping to reconstruct them eventually and i thought this is kind of cool since we work with children so much that in the attic someone must have been playing a marble catch game out of some found items so it's kind of functionary and of course the longer he has to be done no matter what year it is no matter  then the house just lends itself to so many treasures and stories and we're excited to keep adding to those i think it's great that you're saving those things are there any other things that you've found that you have on display in the house oh we really love the photos that we found at the claflin room and we have mounted them and hung them to make them part of our space so we remember the work and the effort that happened when henry f had a working farm there and i think probably one of the biggest reminders that our family looks at daily and my students look at daily is the exquisite copper beech tree that's right outside the house is that was always there right it's gargantuan i house i think it was planted the same time if you look back at the newspaper photo it's just a little sapling there is just there and if you look at it now it's gigantic and in the farm journal henry frost and miranda talk about the symbolism of that tree that it supposed to root their family and be a constant reminder of the hard work and effort of their home and when things are hard or the day is hard with the students and we're thinking about having a lot of effort in our learning we can look at that tree and remember all the hard work preceded us so knowing those stories and those memories are critical i think too you can incorporate the history of the home into your courage and that tree is our class pet it's on its own feeding  because we want to last as long as it can it's not indigenous to this area so it actually needs its own menu to stay healthy it's good that you're taking care of it we love it there you are the first owner since the original owner says the frost family or other their owners have owned it because there have been other owners and i been in touch with two of the previous owners and given a tour so the family two families back and now their name is escaping me but it was really fun for them to walk around the house and see what stayed the same and what has changed and even they loved playing hide and seek in this house there are so many places to run as a child and died so a lot of my children do the same things so any descendants of the frost family no no it would be wonderful we joke about getting all of the owners and don't want to go there for henry frost party to see what we could do because there's a lot of historic homes connected really y yes why don't you tell us about sure i'd be happy to well the frost family owned expense of land in the pleasant street area and the right road and as the family grew other generations would move and build their own houses so it's great the original frost family house is the stephen frost house on pleasant street and it's a great example of georgian style architecture and their children built in the latest styles and you have the greek revival style which your house is and it's a great example of that style i had no idea i had no yet thought it was only that one frost poem so i'm learning something today in two thousand six your family iris received the belmont historical society preservation  preservation award to recognize people in belmont who have preserved their homes or have played a key role in the preservation of the important properties in our community and we give them for projects  include conservation of open space and historic preservation awards and iris your house was a great example of what can be done to a historic house to rehabilitate it to update it for modern living and the great part about your project is your house is located outside of the local historic district so you had no regulations to preserve your house and you did such a wonderful job to show people in the community what can be done with the historic house and i think you've been a real catalyst for that area of town because there are other older houses from your period of construction and a little newer you know around one thousand nine hundred and those houses are being lovingly restored to so it's been a great preservation win win for the community that's great so when you found out you got the award how did that me i was so honored and surprised because we had just come out of so much construction and when we received word that we were being bestow this amazing award we mediately of course to a party that my family so we had all of the members from the historic society invited for why such a joy to see so many people that care so deeply about restoration and maintaining the historical integrity of our town be in one place appreciating the hard work of so many  this farmhouse it was so rewarding which is wonderful well what would your advice be to someone interested in buying in renovating a historical you need to really know what you're getting into and be prepared basically to buy the house twice over time yes but at the same time so many things are right with old homes and i think people are afraid because it's more work than buying something new but there is so much beauty in the history that can never be replaced whether it's wide board pine floors whether it's a mahogany door or porch just it you can't replace those pieces of history and to have that option living in the northeast is so much fun and the discovery of the experiences of people who lived in the home in the past is also really invigorating and rewarding so we love our historic home we will continue to take care of it and appreciate it and who knows who knows will be next or what will discover as we do have other renovation projects that you'd like to do in the next coming years well the children really enjoy playing with water on our school playground so we've been looking at a lot of antique water pumps and we're really interested in restoring an antique water pump on our school playground so that children can have access to water to water the gardens and their playground add to the same end so that they can experience it will be a historical piece but also be functional for today and i think we'll think about the shutters next the shutters the shutters it's going to be a big job it sounds small but it's not when you have as many windows on the house that are as big as the windows we have in our house and we want to do them right we don't want prefabricated chatter as they need to hold the same sort of feeling of the rest of the exterior of the house joe do you think the shutters were decorative when they were originally put on the henry frost or where they are but did they haven't you know they were funny or actually they were functional and they were very exterior shutters with louver slats like you probably had at your house were used for ventilation and for keeping light out so in the summer months it was a great way to ventilate your house and well are exactly and remember pleasant  about the historic plaque program which has been in existence for their whole two thousand and fourteen since two thousand and fourteen so you've recently got your your plaque it's exciting it's on the home we saw it in the video and if anyone is interested in applying for historic plaque what should they do yeah yeah they should visit our website belmont historical society dot org ok and we have an application process they can also stop by the claflin room during the hours that were opened in the library and we are happy again to work with property owners interested in like iris had researched her house in the clapham room to understand its history and evolution over time and we offer plaques at three different rates if you already have an existing plaque years ago several properties in town were identified with historic plaques that have worn away you can replace that for seventy five dollars if you're a member of the storable society it will be one hundred twenty five or one hundred dollars ok or not a member one hundred twenty five dollars that's great is there a special ceremony when you present the blacks  online and april fifteenth is the deadline for that and just to remind you what our clock looks like that that's just simple yet elegant but it really is nice thank you let's see if my house will qualify but i'm not sure if it's fifteen years old girl i think it has a good chance all right well i want to thank everyone for tuning in if you have a historical home that you'd like featured on a future special edition of citizen hall reports please email me at belmont at wicked local dot com and i know there are lots of historic homes and build one just have to be willing to do what iris did and just open it up a little bit for the public to see which you know it will be great and then it will be on the show mall talk about it and if you have artifacts like iris has please bring them on the show they're fun they're fun to look at and talk about thank you for bringing but i don't really think all you know and thank you for sharing all that research that you did and people should take time to visit the classroom at the library and learn about their homes history it's quite a resource and  you everyone for tuning in