LIANE HANSEN, host:
You've been searching for that perfect home, and then you find it: An old abandoned farmhouse. You peer through the window and you love what you see. You make an offer, but the owner is the State of Maryland, and it won't sell public parkland.
This actually happened 25 years ago, but there was a happy ending. It was the birth of the Resident-Curatorship Program. Here's how it works: The state gives you that old house for free. In return, you have to restore the property and maintain it. It's a win-win situation. The state gets to preserve these old farmhouses without having to pay for it, and the resident curator gets the place with no mortgage and no property taxes.
Bruce Alexander is manager of Curatorship and Cultural Resources for the State of Maryland. He says the programs worked out great. But he does caution would-be resident-curators: These old houses are serious fixer-uppers.
Mr. BRUCE ALEXANDER (Manager, Curatorship and Cultural Resources): We've had curators that have literary stepped into a property that has had no roof, no windows, no floors. They've fallen through what would remain of the floor -animals, birds. Every kind of thing lives in these buildings. You could hardly even call them a building. It's almost rubble in some ways. So they see something in that. They have, you know, magic in their eyes and they see something, and they just want to restore it.
HANSEN: What is it that makes these houses worth keeping?
Mr. ALEXANDER: I would argue that all historic houses are worth keeping. Now, the question could be what makes it historic? Certainly, a house that's 200 years old is certainly historic and certainly worthy of preservation. But I would argue, and many other preservationists would argue that a house that's just a hundred years old that it's a farmhouse, tells a unique and interesting story about the surrounding community and the people who lived in the house.
Don't forget there was a family that used to live in that house and they used to farm that property. It's an interesting and unique story that can be told by those properties.
Now, if we don't preserve these properties, they will be gone forever. We will never be able to see them again. It will be replaced in the area by a mega mansion.
HANSEN: Your newest resident curator is Hannah Gonzales and she's in Woodbine, Maryland. What can you tell us about her home?
Mr. ALEXANDER: It's a wonderful late 19th century farmhouse. It's a beautiful place. It's a beautiful piece of property. It's in a secluded area of Patuxent River State Park.
HANSEN: I think I'm going to go take a look at that house in Woodbine.
Mr. ALEXANDER: You'll love it.
HANSEN: Hannah. Hannah Gonzales, hi. Liane Hansen.
Ms. HANNAH GONZALES (Resident Curator, Woodbine, Maryland): Good morning. Welcome to the Driver farmhouse.
HANSEN: This is the farmhouse. Look at what you're doing to it.
Ms. GONZALES: Uh-huh.
HANSEN: Hannah Gonzales is doing wonders with the Driver farmhouse in Woodbine, Maryland. The Driver family built this place in the 1890s. A century later, it belonged to the State of Maryland. Hannah was growing up down the road at the time and she decided she wanted to live here someday. Hannah and her husband put in a bid this year. They promised to spend $177,000 to get the place in shape. Maryland awarded them the property.
The farmhouse already looks pretty good. Hannah's friends and family have given it a fresh coat of paint and the surrounding cornfield set off the place rather nicely. The backyard's a little messy. There's an antique bathtub, a sink, and a small mountain of bricks. But they're part of the plan. All these pieces soon will be part of Hannah's new home.
Hannah and I met at the back of the farmhouse. This is a relatively modern part of the building. The back edition was built about 40 years after the rest of the house, and one part of it caught my eye.
Ms. GONZALES: What you're looking out in the back addition was actually originally a porch, which was closed in, I'm guessing, about 70 years ago.
HANSEN: So that detailing that I see on the gable there, that's all original?
Ms. GONZALES: That's all original. This is a clapboard siding. We did not replace any of it. We removed as much lead paint as we possibly could, and then we repainted it. It's Lyndhurst Gallery Beige. It's a National Historic dress color.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: Is it?
Ms. GONZALES: It's not beige. It's Lyndhurst Gallery Beige.
HANSEN: Right. Are you restricted in the color?
Ms. GONZALES: It was a decision that I made to go with the historical colors. The curatorship program - there's principles that we have to follow but there's not a detailed set of rules.
HANSEN: Now, I noticed, I mean, some of those boards on the front porch there - we can walk there, and it's fine?
Ms. GONZALES: Yeah, you can. We will walk carefully. Okay.
HANSEN: Walk carefully. Carefully is good. Okay.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
Ms. GONZALES: Okay. This is my favorite part of the house. This is my doorknob.
(Soundbite of bell)
HANSEN: It's just a key. You turn (unintelligible).
Ms. GONZALES: Aha, and it's (unintelligible).
HANSEN: I love it.
Ms. GONZALES: It's school bell on the other side. The value of the Driver farmhouse - it was rented for years but the renters did essentially nothing to upgrade the house.
HANSEN: But I noticed this doorway.
Ms. GONZALES: And yes, the doorway.
HANSEN: This is - now, this is so typical. This is a pocket door.
Ms. GONZALES: Yes. It's a pocket door, all original, all the original hardware.
(Soundbite door opening)
HANSEN: So that is not something that you see in houses anymore.
Ms. GONZALES: No. They're not like they used to be. It will get stuck.
HANSEN: In a closet?
Ms. GONZALES: No. Not like that. We're still working on it.
HANSEN: Well, considering you'll have the rest of your life in this place.
Ms. GONZALES: Exactly. Exactly. And it's - a lot of people wonder why you would take on a project that's $177,000 that you don't have equity in. But the reality is that it's a massive initial investment. And then, my husband and I will have a sense of financial liberty that many people don't have. We won't have a mortgage for the rest of our lives. We own a house in Mexico and we try to live there as much as we can, so we're going to board up the house and say, mom, take care of house. Just keep an eye on it, and we can take off for two months.
HANSEN: Wow. Crickets came with the place.
Ms. GONZALES: Oh, yeah. Tons of crickets. Tons of tree frogs.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. GONZALES: Lots of birds and deer.
HANSEN: Can we go upstairs?
Ms. GONZALES: Yeah, of course. Please.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
Ms. GONZALES: Everything is structurally (unintelligible) in the house. From upstairs, the stairs are wrapped around, and then we have what I called three and a half bedrooms. If you notice, here's a small office, nursery, half bedroom, trunk closet. I'm not sure what it was.
HANSEN: Wow. This is a very small room.
Ms. GONZALES: It is. It's a very small room. And then we have the closet, and if you look in the closet.
HANSEN: You may look in the closet.
Ms. GONZALES: It's about eight inches deep.
HANSEN: Oh. Yes. I'm convinced they were very small people…
Ms. GONZALES: Yeah.
HANSEN: …in the early 20th century, late 19th century.
Ms. GONZALES: My brother says it's the guitar closet.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. GONZALES: You can't sit in there.
HANSEN: But still, there's just something about the place that's…
Ms. GONZALES: It's…
HANSEN: …very romantic in many ways. You think?
Ms. GONZALES: It really is. It is.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
Ms. GONZALES: We go downstairs.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
Ms. GONZALES: Would you want to walk around the property and see the barn?
HANSEN: Yeah. Show us the barn.
Ms. GONZALES: Go back towards here. Look at the back of the barn.
HANSEN: Yeah. I mean, you've got huge holes in the roof.
Ms. GONZALES: Mm-hmm.
HANSEN: You've got pieces of the side coming off.
Ms. GONZALES: Mm-hmm. It's in rough shape admittedly.
HANSEN: Yeah.
Ms. GONZALES: The back portion of the barn has been missing a part of its roof for about 15 years. What were looking to do is essentially restore it using as many of the pieces as possible.
HANSEN: Right.
Ms. GONZALES: But this is …
HANSEN: But…
Ms. GONZALES: …a huge part of our budget. So just wait in time.
HANSEN: Good thing you will be here your whole life.
Ms. GONZALES: Uh-huh.
HANSEN: It's going to take that long.
Ms. GONZALES: Possibly. Quite possibly.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: So for someone who might be interested in doing this kind of thing…
Ms. GONZALES: Mm-hmm.
HANSEN: …what's the best piece of advice you could give them?
Ms. GONZALES: Oh. You have to walk into it with the idea that this is - it's going to take your entire life to restore it. That's the reality. Old houses -as soon as you fix something, something else breaks, and you have to embrace that. You have to look at it as you have this incredible place to live for the rest of your life. This incredible place to raise your kids and to, honestly, grow old in. I mean, it's - if you can get in the right mindset, it's an incredible program to be involved in.
HANSEN: So you can be romantic but you have to be realistic.
Ms. GONZALES: Be realistic. Otherwise, you'll get overwhelmed very quickly.
HANSEN: Hannah Gonzales, thanks a lot for showing us around the Driver farm, and good luck with all the work you have to do.
Ms. GONZALES: Thank you very much.
HANSEN: Hannah Gonzales is the resident-curator of a 120-year-old farmhouse in Woodbine, Maryland. We also spoke with Bruce Alexander. He's the manager of Curatorship and Cultural Resources for the State of Maryland.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
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