Should It Stay or Should it Go? Opinions 'Clash' Over Stratford's 'White House'

No one will accuse Town Council member Matt Catalano of being dispassionate. 

When the feisty third district Republican sets his sights on something, it’s not likely someone is going to talk him off his mark. 

Catalano is among those in town who are passionate about the Shakespeare theatre and grounds in Stratford, and what should be done there now after 30 years of fits and starts, false promises and disappointments. 

Catalano has a vested interest in the property in the sense that he grew up in the downtown historic district that encompasses the greater Elm and Main streets, still residing on Main Street.

Get him talking about the Shakespeare theatre property, the theatre itself and the “White House” that sits on Elm Street at the theatre site’s entrance, and well, there’s no stopping him. 

About the White House, Catalano said simply, “We need to restore it.”

What would be done with it? Catalano then effusively begins to describe the various museum quality artifacts, clothing, prints, playbills, steel etchings, rare books and other valuable items that are immediately available for display. 

“You should have seen the stuff we found in the basement,” he said. “They allowed this stuff to languish in the cellar for five years,” all items that were moved to safe storage on Paradise Green, Catalano added, while gesturing toward the White House, which to the casual observer might be a fitting candidate for a wrecking ball. 

But not to Catalano, and others. 

He envisions a restored White House to be the home of a town-blessed, designated not-for-profit organization that would oversee the entire operation, including the theatre but also the proposed Shakespeare Museum where the theatre artifacts described above could be on display. In addition, the spacious White House could be home to a center for the arts, with administrative support offices for those uses as well as for the theatre itself, including box office. 

As a not-for-profit entity entirely separate from the town, the organization would raise grant funds to begin the process of rebuilding the theatre into what is was meant to be, Catalano said, a four-month or so home for the Shakespeare festival arts and other classic theatre productions and trainings. In the off-season, the facility could generate revenue, as it is an acoustically excellent venue for concerts and the like. 

“Every attempt [to restore the theatre] that came before now was by for-profit enterprises, and all far-fetched,” Catalano noted, adding that he understands the frustration of Stratford townspeople who are “weary” and “wary.” Residents are “weary” of years and years of false promises and hope for the theatre, and “wary” of spending any taxpayer money when the town is talking about closing schools and cutting town staff. 

The key concept would be the formation of a not-for-profit organization, Catalano said. “Once you do that, you tap into other people’s money,” including grants from foundations and corporations, he said. There is money out there that would be interested in investing in the project. But it’s quite another story when the “investors” are from the private sector with a profit motive clouding their judgments, and frankly, he said, doing so without the town’s best interests at heart. 

Catalano stressed that it’s because the town has relied on the private sector in the past to provide a solution at the Shakespeare property that it has failed. Given that, he wants the mayor and Council to appoint an advisory committee of town officials and interested citizens to begin the process of exploring the formation of a non-profit organization. 

But as the pigeons and squirrels romped in and out between gaping holes in the siding of the White House timbers, time is of the essence, said Catalano. He was joined on the site by Edward Goodrich, chairman of the Arts Commission and former Republican nominee for mayor, and Carol Lockshier of Elm Street. 

“I also grew up here on Main Street,” Goodrich said Saturday on site. “We won’t let this become the next Phelps Mansion,” he said, pointing to what he said are relatively simple exterior structural improvements, tightening the roof where it’s become detached, and plugging holes in the siding of the White House.

“It looks bad, but it’s not nearly as bad as some want you to believe,” Goodrich said. 

“We’re not going to make the same mistakes we made with the Phelps House,” he continued, gesturing to the structure and incensed that town officials are sitting on their hands, “just letting it sit here to rot,” which if not changed soon “will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” 

Lockshier noted that the interior of the White House lends itself to restoration and reuse. 

All three pointed to the relatively new windows installed in the White House in the late 1990s, as well as its overall structural integrity and restorable interior with some minor water damage to date. 

But while Catalano, Lockshier and Goodrich, as well as fifth district Councilman John Dempsey are sold on the idea of creating a not-for-profit entity to work with the town and raise third party funds for restoration, there is resistance within the town administration itself. 

Click here to read the Stratford Star story by John Kovach detailing town officials reporting at the April 25 meeting of the Building Needs Committee on the condition of the White House. 

Catalano met with Mayor John Harkins Monday but came away unsatisfied with the discussion, he said. 

“They want to tear it down and sell it, like they did next door,” Catalano said.

He noted that there powerful forces in town that want to tear down the White House and perhaps sell off the property where it sits on Elm Street, perhaps for a condo development.

Goodrich promised that the neighborhood will make itself heard on the issue at the next Town Council meeting on Monday.

Meanwhile, Catalano said he was looking forward to hearing back from the New York City based consultants, Willem Brans Arts Consulting Group, whose firm advertises the following on its web site:

“The value of a good consultant is to unlock an organization’s previously hidden assets.”

That’s exactly what Catalano is hoping to hear when the consultant presents its preliminary report to the town soon, including, presumably, a recommendation on what to do with the White House.

See photo gallery, attached, for an exterior tour around the White House, and tell us your opinion on the White House in the comments section, below.