nothin Would-Be Rescuers Clash On Ely House’s Future | New Haven Independent

Would-Be Rescuers Clash On Ely House’s Future

Allan Appel Photo

The Ely House, now shuttered.

ACES/ECA, the organization that runs an arts high school on Audubon Street, is seeking to save and take over the John Slade Ely House around the corner.

That has alarmed local artists who also are trying to save the Elly House, a half-century-old arts center that closed last month.

Those are the latest developments in the battle over the future of the Ely House as a Sept. 17 probate court hearing approaches. Several groups want to stop Wells Fargo, the bank that serves as trustee for the house, from selling it off. But not everyone’s on the same side right now.

Wells Fargo, the fiduciary agent of the trust that controls the building, announced the planned sale earlier this year. It stated that income from the trust fund is insufficient to keep pace with expenses and the principal is being regularly invaded. The center’s art-group tenants, other local artists, and New Haven’s Harp administraiton implored Probate Judge Frank Forgione to stop the sale. At the most recent probate hearing—read about that here—the judge called a time out for all the parties to try to reach a solution.

ACES has since submitted a letter to the court seeking to take over the building and move the Educational Center for the Arts’ graphic arts program there.

Friends of the John Slade Ely House (FJSEH), who distributed the letter to the press and others, have termed that a takeover.”

In the Aug. 18 letter, ACES Board Chair Norm Hicks and Executive Director Thomas Danehy wrote to Probate Judge Forgione asking to be considered to use the house as a home for our fine arts department. .. . We would be honored to be recognized by the Probate Court to be assigned use of the building on a long-term basis.”

Click here to read the full letter.

That letter was news to FJSEH, which had shown up in Forgione’s court and collected petitions to save the facility. The group knew nothing of ACEs’ intentions, said a FJSEH co-founders, designer Jeanne Criscola.

FJSEH this week sent off a letter to the the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, which, with the city, has served as a go-between among the groups of stakeholders at the judge’s request.

In their letter to the foundation of last week, Criscola and fellow founders Raymond Smith and Anna Bresnick, wrote: The House must not be sold to a state, city, or private agency. If the John Slade Ely Trust can be legally transferred to the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, the house must go with it. Without this synergy, 55 years from now it may be another unremarkable property that people have forgotten.”

The foundation responded with an offer for a second meeting — the foundation had convened an initial one after the July probate hearing — to respond to the Friends’ concerns.

Late Thursday afternoon Criscola emerged from that second meeting with foundation officials encouraged and relieved to learn that the ACES/ECA plan is hardly a done deal, just one proposal of a number of options to be presented to Judge Forgione later in the month.

FJSEH has its own plan, she added. It hasn’t been formulated in detail yet. But the new organization, which recently incorporated and has gathered 1,000 petition signatures, is putting together a board and consultants to create a business plan.

The general outlines of the FJSEH plan is for the new group to act as an operational trustee of Ely Huse and the [community] foundation to act as financial trustee. What was missing before is that Wells Fargo [the current trustee] was in the position to do both of those things, and they didn’t have the experience, interest to do those things; they outsourced so many of its management [responsibilities],” Criscola said.

City Arts, Culture, and Tourism Director Andrew Wolf wrote in an email that he approves of the foundation’s initiative. He called it an early stage study, with input from a broad spectrum of thought and arts leadership in the region, at the [state] attorney general’s request” to be presented to Judge Forgione.

Criscola said that Wolf had discussed the involvement of ECA/ACES during the initial meeting with the foundation after the first probate hearing, but there were not enough details to make a judgment.

She said questions were raised: If the Ely house were taken over in its operations by a school organization such as ECA/ACES, wouldn’t an elevator have to be put in for the students? And would that not affect the historic character of the building?

A high school has constrictions and it has security issues …probably has censorship issues, and from what I read [in the ECA/ACES letter] they really wanted to take it over and not have a portion of it continue to be gallery space [for artists in the community]. To us that wouldn’t speak to the intention of the will [of Grace T. Ely] because a single group would be in charge. We feel the house is a place where all the regional groups should feel at home and welcome,’ she added.

Wolf responded: There is no doubt that the input and potential participation of ACES/ECA is an important consideration given the current condition of the property and the aspirations delineated by Mrs. Ely. ACES/ECA stewardship of historic properties is admired — from their current Audubon Adaptive Re-Use of a religious property into an efficient, effective and energized arts campus to the Little Theater on Lincoln.”

Wolf wrote that city officials have a response team monitoring the situation to protect and advance the testamentary wishes of Grace Ely.”

Also on the agenda of the Sept. 17 probate status hearing at the North Branford Town Hall is a motion from Attorney General George Jepsen’s office to delay any sale of the property for 60 days pending the exploration of alternatives.

Criscola said her fledgling group is scrambling to figure out how to raise the money to put together a pro forma, our own business plan, and be taken seriously by the community foundation.

Stay tuned.

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