Proposed Main Street Road Reconstruction Project in Noank Village

I was a property owner and resident of Main Street in Noank for many years and return to the village on a regular basis to visit friends and family. As such, I wish to express my thoughts on the potential Main Street Road Reconstruction Project.

The physical characteristics, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and associations with Noank's Main Street are among the elements that earned the village of Noank its place on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The district must retain integrity to convey its historical significance and reflect its value and contribution to national and international history. If any intervention on Main Street were to be considered, efforts of protection and preservation of this feeling and the associations that maintain the historical significance of the village, rather than modernization, are required. Infrastructure maintenance, then, should be extremely subtle.

I for one encourage the Groton Town Council to abandon multimillion-dollar modernization plans for Noank and its Main Street. Furthermore, it is difficult to ascertain whether Wright-Pierce has experience in preservation to the ideals of the NRHP and the required sensitivity to the historic elements present in the village, or whether it is primarily an engineering firm geared towards modernization. I fear the latter.

Sincerely yours,

R. Andrieux

Vannes, Brittany, France

Former home owner on Noank's Main Street