Holleywood comes to life again on shores of lake

LAKEVILLE, Conn — The renovation of Holleywood, the stately mansion on the shores of Lake Wononscopomuc, has been going on for more than two years and area residents have been keen to find out how it’s going and maybe even take a peek inside.The house is privately owned so there aren’t exactly visiting hours. And of course during the course of the renovation, visitors had to be kept out because the job site was, sometimes, hazardous to anyone who wasn’t wearing a hardhat.Holleywood owners Donald and Helen Klein Ross came to the Scoville Memorial Library on Saturday, Feb. 16, to offer a PowerPoint presentation and talk on the work they’ve done and on the history of the house. Their talk was part of the Era of Elegance lecture series sponsored by the library and the Salisbury Association’s Historical Society. The late afternoon talk was so well-attended that every seat in the Wardell Community Room was taken, and people lined three of the four walls in the room.The presentation was made by Helen Ross, an award-winning advertising writer and professional photographer whose first novel will be published this March. Her presentation featured contemporary and historic photos of the house that she and her husband bought in 2010 — even though, she said, she and Donald had been happily living in “a really adorable farmhouse” in Amenia for the past 20 years.It all began, she said, when she and her husband decided they needed a new stove.Everyone in the room, familiar with how renovations unfurl, laughed heartily. As expected, what began as the purchase of a new stove soon turned into a renovation of the entire kitchen. The work was done by Rob Anderson and Ellen Burcroff. As their kitchen job was wrapping up, Anderson said he was on his way to give the once-over to a historic house in Lakeville that was up for sale. He returned to tell the Rosses that the house was a literal diamond in the rough. A great deal of cleaning and work would have to be done to it but eventually someone would end up with a magnificent property.Aside from Anderson, no one was very encouraging about the project. Realtor Robin Leech, demonstrating the soft-sell technique, indicated that probably someone would buy the house, but “there’s so much wrong with it.”When Helen would ask her architect, historic house specialist Frank Garretson, what he thought the house would need, he would remain silent.At that time, Helen noted, her husband was traveling a great deal. She went to visit the house herself, “because I like old houses,” and immediately fell in love with it. When Donald returned, she took him on a tour of the house, following him through its 20 rooms and repeating, “Isn’t it great?”Donald Ross, noted his wife, is a lawyer and is a completely logical person. “And this project made no sense.”But he, too, fell under the house’s spell and so a two-year odyssey of loving repairs and historical research followed.History comes aliveThey shared their results with an audience that included area historians and many people who had grown up in the area and remembered the house as it was when John Rudd still owned it. Rudd was the last descendant of original homeowner Alexander Holley to live in the house. His son, Jay, who lives in Michigan, sold it to the Rosses.Part of the magic of the house is that so many people still live here who have been in the house and have memories of the house. Its history and the history of the prominent family that owned it (including Alexander Hamilton Holley, who built the house and was also, in addition to being a successful businessman, a governor of Connecticut) have been so thoroughly documented that, even after two years, the Rosses have just scratched the surface of what’s out there.But the beauty of these new owners (or custodians, in a sense) of Holleywood is that they care deeply about the house and its past and its significance to the community. From their first days, they have invited the public in to take part in the process of bringing the mansion and its grounds back to their former grandeur. No doubt many future fundraisers will be held at the house (like the one last October for the Scoville Memorial Library). And no doubt, as the process of restoration, renovation and furnishing continues, the Rosses will continue to invite the community to take part. And for anyone who missed the talk at the library on Saturday, Ross promised, there is a website loaded with photos, old and new; and the story of the renovation as it has unfolded. The site, by Helen Ross, is called www.bringingbackholleywood.com.Anyone interested in the continuing series of Era of Elegance talks at the library is invited to hear a talk March 16 by Richard Chilcoate on preservation and the National Park Service. All talks are free and everyone is invited to attend.