Once a long, long time ago now, friends of mine banded together with others and became The Friend of the Willows Cottage. Things like charettes were held. Fundraising and friend raising was done. The media paid attention. For a while it was wonderful.
It was wonderful until it wasn’t. Kind of like Skunk Hollow Community garden. IT was great, until it wasn’t. Now both languish somewhat.
But I keep hearing present day rumblings about the Willows cottage. I forget how much was spent to fix it up? Like hundreds of thousands of dollars in total? And now it is supposedly in disarray and a mold pit again? Why wasn’t the Radnor Conservancy paying attention? But wait, have they ever paid attention to other than their very narrow social club? If they had just moved their offices to the Willows Cottage years ago like people wanted them to, perhaps we wouldn’t even be having this conversation today?
Anyway, what is the future of the cottage?
I received an email today:
Old Friends,
The issue of the final disposition of the Cottage that so many of us spent good energy in preserving and improving is once again in jeopardy.
Second handedly, people are saying that the cottage is closed to all persons, because of the black mold having returned that many worked to clean off, with white vinegar.
Whether this Township asset stays or goes should not happen without first having an in-depth discussion and exploration of several ideas for returning this asset to full use.
Working together we saved this building once; maybe creative minds working together can bring it into the future?
Feedback requested. And, please forward this email to anyone else you think would want to know.
I find this terribly sad and such a waste to even contemplate. But Radnor is regressing at such a rate, it wouldn’t surprise me. But I will throw up this post in the hopes that people will care. One of my friends who cared deeply about this and helped passed away a few years ago, and he would be so sad to hear this news…I really hope there are enough people out there to still care.
#SaveTheWillowsCottage
#ThisPlaceMatters
