Yellow House gets the green light | News, Sports, Jobs

HOWLAND — The Howland Zoning Board of Appeals has approved the waiver that allows the Howland Historical Society to move the historic “Yellow House” from State Route 46 to a property across from Howland Middle School.

The Zoning Appeal Board also approved, at its Thursday evening meeting, the waiver needed for the corporation to operate a museum and office in a residential house at a location separate from King Graves Road,

Zoning administrator Dan Morgan said the company had acquired 7.81 acres at Brewster Drive SE and South Street SE, behind Howland Plaza and across from the college. The company wants to place the historic house there. The property is zoned hallway review area.

The company requested an 81.1 foot gap on the 200 foot lot.

Built in the 1830s, the Yellow House is Howland’s oldest home, society member Cindy Mines said. If not moved, the house would be demolished for the planned Divergent Diamond Project to improve traffic flow at the interchange of State Routes 82 and 46.

Mines said the house would be moved early on a Sunday morning, which would take 45 minutes to truck to the new location. She said a small road will be built on the property extending to the entrance ramp from Route 82, with the house to be climbed up the ramp, across Route 82, down the other ramp to Route 46, then to South Street.

The Yellow House will be open one Sunday per month for three hours. The site offers space for four parking spaces.

The new site is on the former Brown Mackey Farm. Mines said the property was donated to the company by Red Stone Industries.

As for the other location, company chairman Mary Jane Vennitti said the 1.4-acre property on the north side of King Graves Road in Howland Wilson Road NE was purchased last December. It is zoned single-family residential, but the society wants to have a museum and offices inside.

She said the house was known as Jones House in 1860.

Vennitti said there will be parking near the driveway, lighting and an evergreen barrier. Mines said the museum will showcase Howland’s history with items collected from 1803 to the present day. She said the Yellow House and the museum would be open on the same Sunday for viewing.

Mines said the company wanted to preserve the historical significance of the two houses.

Morgan said notices were sent to neighboring owners of the company’s plans for the house and no one objected.

Last summer, real estate agent Jason Altobelli of Altobelli Real Estate donated the yellow house to the company for $1, giving ownership of the house to the company. He still owns the property the house is on.

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