Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [56]
A preservationist, Paxton knew some of the board members. He asked Beachy which ones were inclined to oppose the NLDC. Beachy said the most outspoken board member in favor of opposing the plan was a fellow named John Steffian, an architect from the neighboring town of Waterford.
Paxton still had the scrap of paper with Steffian’s home phone number. He decided to call him.
John and Sarah Steffian were among the wealthiest residents in southeastern Connecticut. Sarah’s great-grandfather had founded Aetna, the insurance company. Sarah’s grandfather had served as chairman of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company. But her father had achieved the most success and had the most far-reaching impact on the world: Dr. John Enders was a professor of bacteriology and immunology at Harvard Medical School and the chief of the division of research of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital medical center. His landmark research had led directly to the development of vaccines against polio, measles, rubella, and mumps. In 1954 he had received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, with two colleagues, after demonstrating how to grow the polio virus in tissue cultures instead of nerve tissues. Time magazine had named him and fourteen other scientists Men of the Year for 1960.
Dr. Enders had maintained a summer estate on Long Island Sound in Waterford, Connecticut, next door to New London. He had died there in 1985 while reading T. S. Eliot aloud to his wife. Sarah and her husband, John, had moved into one of the homes on the estate and had also owned various properties in New London. They were heavily involved in historic preservation in the city.
Paxton left a message on their answering machine. When John Steffian called him back, they hit it off immediately. Like Paxton, Steffian had spent his career in academia. He had served as Chairman of the Architecture and Planning Department at the University of Maryland’s College of Engineering. He’d also been dean of the School of Architecture. Steffian gave Paxton a scathing critique of the NLDC’s design plans for the Fort Trumbull peninsula. To him it was almost blasphemous to tear down every home and building to accomplish urban renewal. He and his wife, Sarah, he told Paxton, were determined to stop the NLDC from tearing down historic homes. Demolition, Steffian insisted, was completely unnecessary.
Steffian liked the fact that Paxton spoke his language and shared his philosophy about urban redevelopment. He also liked the fact that Paxton taught at Connecticut College, Claire’s home base. The Steffians also had a close link to the top of the NLDC’s power structure: Steve Percy, Claire’s right-hand man in charge of real-estate acquisition, was Sarah Steffian’s cousin, and he resided in the other home on the Enders estate. But despite being blood relatives and next-door neighbors, Sarah had no use for Steve. The Steffians despised what Percy had done with the NLDC.
Both Paxton and Steffian wanted to do their part to derail the plan. They agreed to work together and to do all they could to help Susette.
Susette opened her mailbox and pulled out a letter from her nursing school. In desperate need of some good news, she tore it open. It contained a letter informing her that she had successfully completed the nursing program.
She called Mitchell to share the news. Mitchell also had good news. Her meeting with the mayor and Professor Paxton had been very fruitful. “We’re starting to build some real momentum,” Mitchell said.
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A HIP LITTLE CITY
Fred Paxton needed to be marginalized. Claire called a meeting for faculty and students on campus to promote the great things she had been doing in the city.
Paxton attended and listened to Claire explain that redeveloping a depressed