By Gretchen A. Peck

New London’s place in New England and American history is a story told about places as much as it is about its generations of people. Alicia Primer, the executive director of New London Landmarks—a nonprofit historic preservation organization at 49 Washington Street—is a steward of that history.

Last month, Welcome Home spoke with Primer about her role, New London’s remarkable architecture and its flagship program.

Primer grew up in neighboring Niantic, and as a child used to drive into New London to shop among its bustling downtown streets. She recalls how her parents were concerned with preserving New London’s historic buildings, especially during a time of “urban renewal.”

When she was in high school, there was an effort to demolish the Union Station train terminal in New London. She and her mother made signs and picketed outside the station to save the regal landmark. She also took a job with New London Landmarks while in high school, compiling a historic building survey of the city, for which she was paid $1 for each building she documented.

Ultimately, Primer went off to college and lived in Massachusetts for a time, but kept ties to the area. She also maintained her keen interest in history and architecture, working as the chair of the Historical Commission in Weston, Massachusetts for many years. When a friend alerted her the opening for an executive director at New London Landmarks, she seized the opportunity, and it felt like coming home, she recalled.

“New London has so much going for it. It’s so beautiful. We have the beaches, the ferries, Amtrak, the colleges, and we have beautiful buildings,” Primer said.

If you’ve visited New London, you’ve likely noticed wooden signs on the front facades of many of the homes, with a silhouette of a whale, the date the house was built and the name of the first owner.

Primer estimates there are approximately 600 properties with Landmarks plaques around New London.

Any homeowner residing in a house that’s more than 50 years old is eligible for the program. It can be a Colonial-style home from the 1700s, a Mid-Century Modern house, even a contemporary-style home, as long as it meets that 50-year benchmark. For a $250 fee ($235 for New London Landmarks members), Landmarks will research its history and provide the owner not only with a plaque but also a report of the historical discoveries. Primer said they receive, on average, three or four plaque requests each month.

“Our board president goes to the town hall and does title research, all the way back to the beginning. We then pass that title report to a willing volunteer and they go through sites like Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com to research all the people who lived in the houses, and then they write some really interesting narratives about them,” Primer said. “Some of the stories are tragic, and some are happy, but they’re all the story of New London. For example, we just researched one home that was owned by German immigrants for 60 years. They sold it to Italian immigrants, who eventually sold it to Caribbean immigrants.”

One of the program’s goals is to draw attention to the collection of older homes throughout the city—cherished architecture Landmarks hopes will be preserved.

There is a benefit to older homes beyond beauty and character, Primer said. While they certainly need to be maintained, as all houses do, antique houses were more often built to last.

“I always tell people that new houses need work, too. You’ll have maintenance, but oftentimes, the materials used are not always made to last. It can be a false economy,” she said.

“Also, the greenest home is the one that’s already built. Carl Elefante, who’s an architect that worked for the National Trust, said that in the 1970s, and it’s still true today,” she said.

“What makes New London special is that we have buildings with character that have stood the test of time and should be here even when we’re gone someday. That’s what makes this community so special. People come here, and they look around and are just amazed at the homes we have. We’re all stewards of them.”

While the nonprofit receives funding from a number of sources, including local business and foundation grants, the plaque program and memberships are important revenue sources, as well.

“They aren’t the largest driver of our finances, because we rely on grants from the state; however, grants look at our community engagement, and the way to measure that community engagement is by memberships and plaques. We can say, ‘X number of people have applied,” or ‘X number of people have joined,’” she explained.

This year, Primer has doubled the number of memberships. She’s in talks with administrators at Conn College about enlisting an intern who can help digitize many of the paper-based records they have amassed over the years, and make those digital records available to search and read online.

Go to newlondonlandmarks.org for more information on New London Landmarks or the plaque program.