Daughters of the American Revolution Seek Help for 1753 House on South Street

It is our pleasure to publicize this appeal from the Daughters of the American Revolution. They need your help to preserve their landmark pre-revolutionary house on South Street.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

THE DAR HOUSE built in 1753 is a standing monument in the South Street
Neighborhood. It is seen every day by hundreds of people who drive and walk
past the house on their way to work, school and shopping. The home was built by
the Clapp family and was continually inhabited by a family member until 1929.
It is the second oldest home in the neighborhood and one of only a handful of
pre-revolutionary historic houses left in Northampton. The DAR House is on the
National Register.

The DAR has been your neighbor for many years and we’d like to think we have
been good neighbors. At our first Holiday Open House this winter, most of our
visitors were neighbors who had never seen the inside of the House. We hope to
make this an annual event. Again, next fall we plan holding a second genealogy
workshop open to the public. At the end of March, we held our annual DAR Good
Citizens Awards presenting certificates and $100.00 Savings Bonds to three
outstanding area high school students – the House was full that night with student’s
families, friends and DAR members.

It would be impossible not to notice that the house badly needs painting.
Painting and re-glazing our windows are critical for maintaining the exterior
integrity of the house. We also have a wish list of other projects we’d like to
implement if we had the funds to do so. However, the rising cost of heating oil
over the past four years has nearly depleted our very modest endowment fund.

We are hard at work on a CPA application for restoration work, and we’ve learned
that demonstrating neighborhood support and leveraging other funds will
strengthen our application. That’s where we hope we can count on you, our
neighbors. Please consider a gift of any size to our effort to paint the DAR
house. We have found a painter who loves the house and is sharply discounting
the work, so we only need to raise $5000. We are non-profit organization, so
any gift is fully tax-deductible.

Thank you for helping. A freshly painted DAR House will enhance the entire neighborhood (and the city)!

Please write checks to: Betty Allen Chapter, DAR, Inc. and mail to:

c/o Karen Tatro, 188 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060

If you have any questions, please call or email Karen at 584-7746, pinkertontatro@yahoo.com