Let”™s get this out of the way first thing. Yes, in a genealogical way at least, R. Todd Rockefeller is related to the Rockefellers. “But I”™m not part of the family over there in Kensico,” Rockefeller said. “If you ask me did I know John Jr. and Nelson and the current family, no, I don”™t know those folks.” His family, he said, traces back to the Mayflower and “settled up in the Hudson Valley, in Red Hook and Germantown in the late 1600s and the early 1700s.”
That direct line to history might help explain Rockefeller”™s ”“ and his wife, Lisa”™s ”“ delight when they found a 1734 farmhouse in the Ridgebury section of Ridgefield a few years ago, a delight that turned into a passion. “The property is so stunning I can sit out there in my Adirondack chair and feel I”™m back in the 18th century,” he said of the restored grounds.
Rockefeller and his wife were looking for a larger home in 2002, and were scouting around Fairfield County when they happened upon the Colonial-period farmhouse. “We wanted something special, an older home with character,” he said. “We knew it wouldn”™t have modern amenities, but we were willing to go for the character and add in the modern characteristics.”
The Ridgebury house had been empty for two years, and “it was obvious why you wouldn”™t want to live there,” he said. “It just looked tired and needed some TLC.” The couple looked beyond the windows that had been painted shut, past the rotted wood, the overgrown yard and the old and inefficient heating system to see the character, history and potential. “Inside there is still the wide-board chestnut floors and the wide-board pine floors,” he said. Those wide boards reveal something about the importance of the home”™s builder, Recompense Thomas ”“ who was a selectman for Ridgefield. “Anything over 1-foot wide was considered the king”™s property and it was supposed to go back to Britain for building and for ships”™ masts,” Rockefeller said. “You had to get special permission to use it.
“This was quite a home, not a shanty or a shack, with fine woodwork that appears original from the period,” he said. “When I go to the Weir Farm National Park in Ridgefield, I can see the same elements, style, molding and flooring as in my home.”
The center-chimney house with four fireplaces “was built even before we declared independence,” he said. “We saw the possibilities.”
A place to learn
Rockefeller grew up in Katonah, N.Y., in Westchester County, graduated from John Jay High School in Cross River and attended Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. ”“ “a bucolic school of 2,000 students right on the battlefield.” He graduated with a major in political science and a minor in history, then joined Aetna Life and Casualty”™s Purchase, N.Y., office for a year-long training program to become a commercial underwriter. He was, in fact, following in the steps of his father and grandfather, both of whom had been in the insurance business.
“I eventually got tired of sitting behind a desk; that”™s not my station in life,” he said. “I like to be out with people, with clients, giving advice on the front lines. I was working in Purchase with about 50 other people, sitting at an old battleship-gray desk that faced a big clock. But it was a place to learn, and it gave me the depth I needed to go forward. In my business, if you understand how the insurance contracts are triggered and how they operate, you can protect your client.”
After three years with Aetna, Rockefeller moved on to the Hanover Insurance Co. near Syracuse, working out of the couple”™s condominium in Brewster. After another three years he joined Managed Comp Inc. in Purchase for a two-year stint, then joined his father, Richard, in the family insurance business that was founded in 1929 ”“ DeRosa, Rockefeller, Sohigian & Werdel Inc. in Harrison, N.Y.
DRS&W is now a four-member insurance agency that concentrates on insuring the priceless artwork and other treasures of their roster of prestigious clients, and providing corporate clients with risk management advice. “The four of us have been together since 1998,” he said.
An unexpected gift
Rockefeller and his wife lived in that Brewster condominium for five years before moving to a single-family house in North Salem. They had met at the Mount Kisco Presbyterian church when both were in youth group, and married on Sept. 12, 1992, he said without that momentary hesitation many husbands have when trying to recall important dates like their wife”™s birthday. After a few years in North Salem, they began looking for a larger house in Fairfield County, “which always felt to me like the country,” he said. “People are really nice here, and I just wanted to be part of the fabric and feel of it.”
And while Fairfield County may have its charm, the Recompense Thomas House provided even more. “Each time I go home I feel like I”™m inhabiting history,” he said. “It wasn”™t that long ago that our forefathers were carving this out, the house, the original well, the old stone walls.”
Rockefeller isn”™t certain about how many families have lived in the house over the past 274 years, but he and Lisa decided to become the latest, and restore the house and grounds. “We had no children at the time, so we felt we had the time and resources to do that,” he said. An unexpected gift came along two years ago February when Katie was born. “We were told we would not have children,” he said, “so we lived together for 13 years enjoying each other”™s company. Now life is more exciting, and Katie has shed a whole new light on life. I was a workaholic and that was my life outside my home. Now I get home a little earlier and smell the roses a bit more.”
Painting and patching
Lisa, a graphic designer, focused on the home”™s interior, researching how to restore the interior while Rockefeller concentrated on the property, trimming back the overgrowth and restoring the three acres of lawns and gardens. “She”™s our handyman. She has the patience and the time to do the research, and might spend the weekend replacing a rotten board. We”™ve gone to specialty mills for reclaimed wood, trying to keep the house the way it was.”
The couple tackles what Rockefeller calls minor fixes like replacing damaged plaster walls, but they work with specialty contractors for major renovations and repairs. Next on the to-do list is the attached barn, which was moved from the center of Ridgefield in the 1970s. “We”™ve got a vision of making it a new master bedroom, and are talking with five or six contractors to discuss how to do that while maintaining its integrity. Many contractors don”™t want to deal with an old house.”
Like any home, there”™s always something new to work on, only more so. “We”™re almost on a cycle of painting and patching and giving some forethought to what”™s going to crumble next,” he said. “A passerby wouldn”™t know what it takes or how much work you put into it. You never know what you”™re going to come home to.”
