08-20-2023 Harford Magazine - Flipbook - Page 45
Joe Cucchiara, a general contractor for a property management company he started with a partner, has a
background in restoration work.
plan, will end with them becoming among
the latest to participate in Maryland’s
Resident Curatorship Program. In exchange
for restoring, maintaining and sharing
historic homes with the public, “curators” are
granted lifetime tenancy, but not ownership,
of state-owned land.
The Department of Natural Resources
began the program in 1982 and today it
includes over 40 properties across the state,
concentrated in Frederick, Cecil, Baltimore
and Howard counties, according to Peter
Morrill, who manages the program.
“Most of these properties are somewhat
incidental acquisitions of this larger-scale
push to preserve property” with features like
waterways that the Department of Natural
Resources wants to protect, Morrill said.
“It’s been a really effective tool in keeping
around historic properties that otherwise
had somewhat uncertain futures.”
The Cucchiaras see it as an opportunity
to settle down in Maryland permanently —
complete with a project to keep them busy.
“We’re just itching to get started,” Evelyn
said.
In January, the Cucchiaras submitted
a 37-page proposal detailing plans to fix
the floors, ceilings, walls, electrical and
plumbing systems and more. Their goal: five
years of rehabilitation and restoration, to
the tune of $330,000 in labor, materials and
subcontracting.
“We’re excited about it, I wouldn’t say
daunted,” Joe, 61, said.
Evelyn recalled reading about the
curatorship concept in a magazine years ago,
and said she filed away the story because it
piqued her interest. Similar programs have
been launched in states including Delaware,
Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts,
but the Cucchiaras wanted to move south
rather than north and have friends in
Maryland.
Joe, a general contractor for a property
management company he started with a
partner, has a background in restoration
work. Evelyn runs her own playroom
organizing business and is known as the “toy
tamer,” she said.
Together, the pair have also flipped two
properties in New Jersey.
“Compared to the houses that we’ve
renovated … this is nothing, this is fine,”
Evelyn said.
Maryland’s Resident Curatorship Program
attracts people young and old who want to
take on restoration work themselves, jump
at the opportunity to live in a park and geek
out about old houses, Morrill said. Tenants
pay $1 each year as rent, and aren’t paying
“standard property taxes in most cases,”
Morrill explained.
“The program is not for everybody,” he
said. “It takes a special person that’s going
to be interested in doing something for the
public good.”
He said that a draft agreement based
on the Cucchiaras’ proposal was being
finalized in July before a Maryland Board of
Public Works hearing could be scheduled.
Ultimately, the approval process — which
requires the governor’s signature — can take
six months to a year. It’s not guaranteed that
the Cucchiaras will become curators until
every step has been completed, although
Morrill said a reversal at their stage in the
game hasn’t happened during his time
overseeing the program.
The Stephenson House, though
undoubtedly in need of attention, is in good
shape overall, Joe said, because the wellmaintained roof has prevented serious water
harfordmagazine.com | Fall 2023 |
45
