Pagan-Fletcher house gets a special donation

The Pagan-Fletcher Restoration is full of historical artifacts, pictures and other local memorabilia. Last week, the Valley Stream Historical Society added another important piece.

The most recent donation to the Historical Society, which manages the Pagan-Fletcher Restoration, is a tribute to the house itself. At the society’s Nov. 17 meeting, Angelo LaCalandra donated his original pen and ink drawing of the Pagan-Fletcher house, which was drawn in the late 1980s.

LaCalandra’s drawing was used as part of an effort to raise funds to restore the house, which the village took ownership of in 1977. The Hendrickson Avenue homestead, which was in serious disrepair when acquired by the village, was then leased to the Historical Society. Renovations would take place over the next 15 years, with the house opening to the public in late 1992.

Anyone who donated money to the restoration project would receive a poster with LaCalandra’s rendering of the house. Extra copies of those posters are still available in the Pagan-Fletcher gift shop.

When the committee sought volunteers, LaCalandra, an advertising art director and lifelong Valley Stream resident, offered to help out. He was supplied with photos of the house in its glory days by then-Mayor John DeGrace, and from there created a print of what it would look like when fully restored. Overall, he said, it took about two months to draw.

LaCalandra said the paper for the posters was donated by a Pennsylvania paper mill, and a printer in Manhattan also gave of its services.

The original drawing had been hanging in LaCalandra’s home for many years, but decided it should be hanging in the Pagan-Fletcher Restoration. “I figured the proper place for it would be at the home,” he said.

LaCalandra contacted Ed Fare, a village trustee and chairman of the Historical Society’s Board of Trustees. Fare and Historical Society President Guy Ferrara accepted the donation last week.