08-20-2023 Harford Magazine - Flipbook - Page 43
BY ABIGAIL GRUSKIN
PHOTOS BY LLOYD FOX Harford Magazine
O
n the Susquehanna State Park property that
is likely to fall under the care of Evelyn and
Joe Cucchiara, there’s a collapsed structure
that once stored corn. A small stone
building believed to have housed enslaved people in
the 1800s is dark inside, with floorboards on the upper
level that have buckled under a leaky roof.
Inside the late 18th-century James Stephenson
House — the main building on the roughly 9-acre
property in Harford County where the New Jersey
couple intends to live — floral wallpaper from various
decades is peeling off the walls and a bathroom sink
counter is littered with dead bugs.
There’s no running water or heat. But walking
through the property in early July, the Cucchiaras
showed no trepidation, only an eagerness to restore the
historic home.
“We already see the end in our heads,” Evelyn, 61,
said. Her vision: a modern farmhouse, “but not all
white,” she explained.
In the spring, the Cucchiaras were selected to move
forward with a process that, if all goes according to
Evelyn Cucchiara walks
into the James Stephenson
House, in Susquehanna
State Park. Cucchiara
and her husband Joe
are looking to take part
in Maryland’s Resident
Curatorship Program —
where tenants are granted
lifetime tenancy of historic
properties in exchange
for restoring, maintaining
and sharing them with the
public.
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