HARTFORD – On the grounds of a 200-year-old house and former Green Acres Inn, direct descendent Leslie Boness and her husband have settled back on the family homestead and found a unique use for the family property in Poland.

Daryl Boness, a retired Smithsonian scientist, has brought his new skills as a carpenter to oversee the renovation of the original home and adjacent cabins. Boness has restored two of the original 21 cabins. These are available for their friends, family and many colleagues who come to the country to write papers and do research. He has no interest in using the cabins for commercial use.

Boness, who traveled around the world for his marine mammal research from his base at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., said that after 30 years of studying seals, it was time to try something new.

Retirement for Daryl came in 2003, but renovations on Green Acres started around 2001. Renovating the Cape Cod-style farmhouse for their home was the first undertaking. Boness left as much of the original structure as he could, including boards that were well over 24 inches wide and served as the wainscoting.

Boness said one of the biggest problems at first was the electrical wiring, which had to be replaced because of age. Then they discovered the well was hidden under a large tree. The original dining room and kitchen have been replaced with a large modern dining/kitchen/family room with a floor-to-ceiling fireplace. A large deck made of Brazilian walnut looks over the fields and a four-hole golf course. Boness is slowly recovering what was once a 10-hole course.

In the early 1920s, Leslie’s grandfather turned the adjacent large barn into what was to become a very popular inn, Green Acres. People came on the train every year from Boston, New York and other large cities to relax in the country. The inn was a beehive of activity with dances and card-playing for entertainment, as well as golfing.

Leslie’s mother, Ann Poland, said she still has fond memories of those dances and stays in contact with many of the former guests, who come to visit and reminisce. Ann, along with her husband, Lloyd, kept the inn open from 1955 until the late ’80s.

The inn is not presently being restored, but work has been done to maintain the stability of the structure. This involved taking out the back wall where an old ice house had rotted out. Boness also had to brace up and replace the roof. The porch has been replaced, but it looks the same as it did 200 years ago, according to Leslie. Boness says maybe his daughter will take on the project of restoring the inn.

Daryl’s office continues to write articles and do research in his office on the second floor of the new addition. His library annex reaches into the original home. This room is more like a museum, housing technical books and skulls of several kinds of seals that fill a display case.

Boness has not retired completely from his science career either. He has just accepted the editorship of the Journal of Marine Mammal Science and, in the fall, will become the chairman of the Committee of Scientific Advisors for the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. He is a senior scientist emeritus from the Smithsonian and is presently doing research on Antarctica. A planned trip to South Africa in November will complete his travel to every continent in the world.