DIXFIELD – A state historic preservation organization is scheduled to look at one of the town’s oldest, most historic properties to help determine whether it can be preserved.
Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to spend $100 for expenses so Les Fossel, a representative from Maine Preservation, can visit the Holman homestead on the Common Road.
The home, believed to have been built in the late 1700s, has been in the Holman family for generations. The Holmans were one of the town’s founders. Some of the family have offered the home to the town.
Fossel, who is also working with the town of Rumford on restoration possibilities for portions of Strathglass Park, will tour the Holman homestead early Monday with several members of the Dixfield Historical Society.
He will offer estimates on what it would cost to stabilize deterioration, then make a recommendation on what the costs for restoration, if any, would be.
Donna Towle, president of the Dixfield Historical Society, requested that the town pay for Fossel’s visit.
“We’re not going to take on another house, but the Holman house was built in the 1700s and there are not many left. It’s worthy of preservation,” she said.
With Maine Preservation possibly backing its restoration, Towle said the town would have a better opportunity to tap grant funds.
“Without any outside money, the town probably can’t afford it,” she said.
At the June annual town meeting, selectmen recommended that residents not vote on whether to accept the farmstead until costs for stabilizing and restoring it were known. The article had also included taking $7,000 from the Ione Harlow Dixfield Community Fund to make necessary repairs to the homestead.
Eugene Skibitsky, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said once the evaluation was completed, the town could decide whether to accept it.
“It might be so bad that we won’t want to touch it, or it might be worth saving,” he said.
Towle was also directed to ask Holman family members whether they would lift a covenant placed on their offer to the town, which would require the town to return the home to the family if the town doesn’t retain it.
Maine Preservation is a Portland-based nonprofit that identifies endangered buildings and other structures and tries to help interested groups find ways to preserve them.
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