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Our StoryIn 2005, Nora and I became part of the history of this house, when one summer day my sister was passing through town and we had a plan to have lunch in Athens before they pushed off. On a whim, I made an appointment with a realtor to show her this crazy huge old stone house overlooking the Hudson River, having no idea of the price and no intention of buying it as it wasn't looking good, let me tell you. Both of us had grown up in stone house renovations in eastern Pennsylvania, and well remember our pre-teenage years of climbing the ladder to go to bed as the stair restoration was happening. So we knew what the deal was. So, we enter this old house through a sort of home depot addition, and the first thing we see is a federal fan light over double federal doors, looking down a long hall leading to a view of the river. Within seconds my sister leaned over and said in my ear, you are going to buy this house. I didn't believe her! But within an hour I already knew that this house was the platform for a school of restoration that I had fantasized about, and possibly a TV show all based on this historic house. I called Nora that night and told her about the return of the stone house dream, and braced her for its condition. Throughout the buying process everything conspired to drag us in to the deal; the house actually seemed to clutch us. Since then has been an exercise of love and pain. So much demo and removal, so many issues that where sad to encounter due to years of neglect and lack of understanding on the part of former workers making changes and improvements. We have arrived at where we are almost stripped back as far as we can go, and rebuilding restoration has begun in some areas. We have been evolving the TV show idea, and continue to explore options and directions that may make it exciting and worthy. We sometimes struggle with the amount of work, living among the dirt and workers, chaos and squalor, but imagine someday we will too be past this phase with a beautiful restoration to show for it, and another slice of important Hudson river history preserved for posterity. When I was a young man living on a communal farm in Eastern Pennsylvania, someone had inscribed on the inside of the outhouse door a line, which I think of often these days. Let chaos and squalor reign for with order there is tyranny. Lets hope that that's not the whole story, and welcome to our blog. -Reggie __________________________________________________________________________________________ Nora Johnson is a painter and sculptor with a special love for surface and texture and a master of painted effects. She received a BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and pursued post graduate studies in sculpture at Les Beaux Art in Paris. An accomplished and prolific artist, her professional life has included more than 85 major commissions for the public, corporate and private sector, spanning four continents. Among those are works for Bank of America, The Peoria Civic Center, E.I.Dupont, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Linwood, CA and the Hyatt Regency. CLICK HERE TO VIEW NORA'S WORK
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Reggie Young is a conservation consultant who specializes in green historic preservation and restoration. For many years, he lived in New York City where he was a restaurant designer, builder, and operator, and owned several food-related businesses. In 1990, Reggie was one of a group of founders of an innovative program called "Fresh Start" in conjunction with the Riker's Island Correctional Facility. "Fresh Start" brought in prominent chefs Larry Forgione, Anne Rosenzweig, Sarabeth Levine, Patrick Clark and other New York restaurant personalities to teach inmates the necessary skills to work in the food service industry. The program was developed to keep ex-inmates off the streets and out of prison. Reggie has devoted himself to teaching, researching and incorporating green technology and sustainable materials into every possible aspect of his projects, and making the information available to encourage others to do the same. In 2000, he launched "Design and Project Management Studio", a restoration company devoted to dove-tailing historic materials and processes with an acute attention to energy efficient design. In 2006, he and Nora Johnson created "Howard Hall Farm" as a vehicle for educating the community in the utilization of environmentally conscious restoration techniques. The site of the learning laboratory is a 1780s stone manor in the heart of the Hudson River Valley. They bring in experts from across the country to train local homeowners and restoration professionals to restore green. Reggie continues to take on environmentally conscious projects that allow him to train and create jobs for green collar workers, and educate the community in new ways to live, build, and restore green.  Howard Hall Farm is both an historic restoration project and a vehicle for educating people in sustainable, environmentally conscious restoration techniques. The site of our learning laboratory is a 1780's stone manor in the heart of the Hudson River Valley. This Federal-style home presents a number of restoration challenges specific to this region of the country and is an ideal platform for a grass-roots look at how to ease a deteriorating home into the future as a modern, functioning dwelling with minimal impact to the house and the environment. As preservation architect Carl Elefante says, "The greenest building is the one you don't build." In our restoration we are focused on dovetailing an acute attention to historic detail with the newest green technology, which will allow historic homes to go into the future as modern, functioning dwellings with minimal impact to the house and the environment. Our mission is to investigate, restore, and revive every facet of this structure in a green manner, and provide a forum for other interested homeowners and craftspeople to learn to do the same. In an effort to educate ourselves, we bring in preservation and restoration experts from all over the country to train us and everyone who attends our workshops in green techniques to preserve and revive our homes while minimizing their impact on the environment. With the help of these incredible individuals, we can all learn to bring an old home out of the cobwebs and into the green. Welcome to Howard Hall Farm, our lives, and the cast of characters. Join us in our effort to RESTORE GREEN.
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