SALISBURY — Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D-5) admired the kitchen cabinets, the sunlight streaming through the large windows and an airy room well suited for flexible living space.
She toured the new affordable home at 17 Perry St. on Thursday, Jan. 29. The house, recently completed by the Salisbury Housing Trust, is awaiting a family to call it home. The modular home is one of four erected in Salisbury through the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity’s Affordable Homeownership Program for scattered sites. Houses were also built in Norfolk, Cornwall and Washington.
Jocelyn Ayer, director of the center, joined members of the housing trust and First Selectman Curtis Rand in welcoming Hayes and explaining how the project came together. Rand said the property was the site of a dry-cleaning establishment located in the center of a residential area. “It was owned by two people who walked away from it. It took 15 years before we took the initiative to do something. We didn’t want to foreclose until we were sure we had someone to share in the cleanup.”
That partner was the state Department of Economic and Community Development, which provided a grant. Once the contamination was abated, a process that took five years, the town gave the property to the trust.
Hayes commended the town, saying, “I’m surprised you took the risk.”
Ayer said the critical pieces in making the project happen were the town donating the land and the Planning and Zoning Commission approving two homes on the Perry Street lot. She also thanked Hayes for her support in securing some federal funding toward the project.
“Other towns are jealous of the support we have here,” Ayer told Hayes, which includes help from the town, state and federal government.
Jennifer Kronholm Clark, vice president of the Salisbury Housing Trust, shows Congresswoman Jahana Hayes the kitchen in the trust’s newly built affordable house on Perry Street during Hayes’s visit Thursday.Ruth Epstein
Each of the houses costs $250,000. The trust retains the land on which they sit. The cost to build each house was $500,000, said Ayer. So far, two of the four Salisbury homes are occupied. Those eligible must be first-time homeowners.
Heat is provided by mini-split units in each room. The houses run on electricity and Ayer said the trust is exploring solar options. “We have $40,000 for each house, but we’re having a hard time getting bids near that.”
Jennifer Kronholm Clark, vice president of the trust, described the families who are already occupying the two houses. Just next door at 19 Perry St. is a young family with two children, one born recently. The mother grew up in Salisbury and “this is a wonderful opportunity for her to raise her children where she was raised. It’s a beautiful story.”
The family in one of the Undermountain Road houses has three boys who are thrilled to have a playground practically in their front yard, said John Harney, president of the trust. When the town conveyed that parcel, it stipulated that the existing playground remain.
Even with the $250,000 price tag, which is considered affordable in today’s housing market, Ayer said there has been a lot of interest expressed, but many just cannot afford to buy because they are unable to secure a mortgage. Hayes noted the guidelines have to be adjusted, adding that while affordable housing has always been an issue, “it’s getting to the top of the priority list.”
She lauded Ayer for all the work she does to promote affordable housing, telling her “You have a great vision. I’ll keep going to bat for you. I’ll keep trying to get federal money.”
As she was about to leave, Hayes was presented by Harney with what he called “liquid gold” — maple syrup made by Dolores and Champ Perotti of East Canaan. He also had a bottle for Ayer.
Those who may be interested in applying for the homeownership program should contact Ayer at 203-579-3180.
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Izzy Fitch at Battle Hill Forge in Wassaic.
The giant metal mantis, built by artist Jim Hackett, is now part of a summer contest Fitch devised. He’ll strap it to the roof rack of his car and drive it around. When people spot it, they can take a photo, post it on social media and tag @battlehillforge, @lakevillejournal and @themillertonnews. At the end of the contest, names will be drawn at random and gift certificates to Battle Hill Forge will be awarded.
“It’s just for fun,” said Fitch, whose work often blurs the boundaries between art, utility and play. “Who couldn’t use more fun these days?”
Fitch moves through his sprawling workshop spaces like an enthusiastic museum guide leading visitors through a collection he forgot he owned. Every few steps, something catches his attention. A hand-forged daffodil. A dragonfly. A prototype trellis. A powder horn his great-grandfather taught him to make. A concrete toad inherited from his grandmother.
“Oh, this is cool,” he says, veering off course.
A few minutes later:
“Oh, I forgot to show you this.”
Then:
“You want to see something really cool?”
The tour never quite follows a straight line.
Neither does Fitch.
Long before Battle Hill Forge became known for custom gates, garden structures and sculpture found everywhere from private estates to major cultural institutions, Fitch was a child building armor for toy animals.
“I had a Black Panther that was this big and I armored it,” he says, holding his hands a few inches apart. “I made all my little people and creatures, and I armored them all up and I made all the weapons for them.”
Fitch’s father was a logger. Tools were plentiful. Toys were not.
“He wouldn’t buy us toys really, so we would have to make our own.”
The family business, if there was one, was making things.
Izzy FitchNatalia Zukerman
His great-grandfather was a master craftsman who made Windsor chairs in collaboration with his uncle, Bert Fitch. His father supplied the raw materials, Bert made the chairs, his great-grandfather carved the spindles. His relatives were renowned woodworkers. People would travel from far and wide to have his great grandfather make handles for them.
“I really learned a lot from spending time with my grandparents and my great-uncles,” he says.
Today, that inheritance is visible everywhere inside the forge.
Giant steel pumpkins wait beside elegant peony supports. Honeycomb sculptures support an endearing bee also made by Hackett. Giant orbs loom playfully. Metal mushrooms, used in classes Fitch teaches to children, line the windowsills.
Many are prototypes Some are commissions. Some exist simply because Fitch thought they might be fun to make.
“I just think of something cool,” he says. And then he makes it.
“Most of the metalworkers that I work with don’t want to talk to people,” he says. “They’re like, ‘Just tell us what you want. Give me the plans and I’ll make it.’”
Fitch is different. Part craftsman and part translator, he enjoys helping clients discover what they want before it exists.
Unless, of course, he’s distracted by a frog story.
The previous Battle Hill Forge location, in Millerton, included a small pond where Fitch often ate lunch.
“There was a dead mouse out there one time,” he recalls. “This frog was so clever. He would sit near the dead mouse and when flies came down, he would get a fly.”
He watched the frog for an entire lunch break.
The story arrived somewhere between explanations of Japanese patinas and custom railings.
It also explains a lot. Fitch notices everything: plants, insects, old tools, odd solutions, clever engineering tricks. His work is filled with observations gathered from gardens, forests, old European designs and conversations with other makers.
A peony support isn’t just a peony support. It’s an opportunity to improve something. A trellis isn’t just a trellis. Maybe it can come apart for shipping. Maybe it can help a plant grow differently. Maybe it can do something no one has considered before.
“I’m not really inventing anything new,” he says. “I just tweak it a little bit.”
After its beginning in Falls Village, moving to Millerton and eventually settling in Wassaic, Battle Hill Forge has become one of the region’s success stories. The shop is booked months in advance. Projects range from garden ornaments to monumental railings weighing hundreds of pounds. Designers seek him out. Gardeners collect his work.
Yet Fitch remains most animated when discussing collaboration.
The intern helping in the shop first met him as a student in one of his metalworking classes. Local glass artists add to his sculptures. Garden designers have helped refine his plant supports. For Burning Man this summer, he’s joining a team of fellow artists to build an installation featuring an oculus and a pair of metal sphinxes.
“We’ll have a little party,” he says.
The phrase could describe half the projects in the shop, especially the praying mantis. Technically, that sculpture belongs to Hackett.
“He makes all this cool stuff,” Fitch says. “I sell them for him because he’s one of those artists who doesn’t want to deal with the public.”
Fitch laughs.
“Which is totally smart.”
Outside, a dog wanders through the yard. A timber framer works next door. Metal rusts into beautiful shades of brown. New ideas wait in various stages of completion and there’s just a little magic around every corner.
To contact Battle Hill Forge, visit battlehillforge.com.
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