No agreement can be signed until all the artwork and artifacts of value are removed from the building.
The oldest State House in America is now closed to the public amid Connecticut’s budget problems. In addition, millions of dollars worth of artwork could be removed from the building.
The future of the 220-year-old building that once housed the state legislature is in limbo. It was managed by the Office of Legislative Management in partnership with the Connecticut Public Affairs Network (CPAN), but lawmakers transferred the responsibility to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection - an agency faced with its own budget problems.
Walter Woodward, is Connecticut State Historian and Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. Speaking on WNPR’sWhere We Live Woodward said cuts to the Old State House and Connecticut Humanities were made in haste and the burden should have been spread more widely.
"When the Old State House was transferred from the Office of Legislative Management to DEEP they were given a $400,000 budget, so they trimmed it by $200,000," Woodward explained. "And this was on top of a $10 million cut that DEEP had already experienced, so they inherited a really, really tough problem."
A spokesman for DEEP said the agency does not have the financial resources to maintain the artwork in the building and provide security. So no agreement can be signed until all the artwork and artifacts of value are removed from the building.
Jody Blankenship, CEO of the Connecticut Historical Society, said so far there have been no formal requests to remove items from the Old State House. If artifacts and memorabilia are removed Blankenship said they will be on view at the Connecticut Historical Society's research center.
The Old State House, designed by American Architect Charles Bulfinch, is the site of many historic events, including the opening of the Amistad trials. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
An earlier version of this report said the Old State House was managed by the Connecticut Historical Society. It was actually managed by the Office of Legislative Management and the Connecticut Public Affairs Network.
