FARMINGTON — Michael A. Angelicola carves headstones: sculpted roses, angels, religious carvings, by his own description. He makes them in an old factory building in Bristol that he shares with a crowd of other businesses, and that, he told Farmington's Town Plan and Zoning Commission on Monday, Oct. 5, makes them hard to sell.
"Nobody really knows about it," he said. "Half the people don't even know how to find me when I give them directions."
About a month ago he moved into a building on Route 6, the former frame shop at 346 Scott Swamp Road, next door to Cumberland Farms and kitty-corner from Fancy Bagel and Tractor Supply. On Monday the commission unanimously approved his plan to put his work outside it, a row of carved monuments along the front of the building where drivers can see them.
"People really need to see it," Angelicola said. Online, he said, he is just "another monument company," and plenty of people drive right by without knowing a monument shop is there.
About 20 stones, single file
The approval covers two display areas, according to the meeting's minutes, which the town has posted: 6 feet by 24 across the front of the building and 2 feet by 8 on its left side. Angelicola said he would like to fit about 30 headstones but realistically expects about 20. The smallest, he said, run about 18 inches across and 2 feet tall; the biggest about 3 feet across and 30 inches tall. As one sells, another goes in its place.
The carving stays in Bristol. The Scott Swamp Road building will be his office and a small indoor showroom, with no cutting or chiseling on site. Commissioner Josh Davidson checked that first. His other question was about looks. Davidson, who had looked at Angelicola's website, called him "a very talented artist and craftsperson" and worried that a row of stones could look cluttered. Angelicola said he would set them "pretty much single file," clean up and mulch the area, put a fresh coat of paint on the building and cut back the overgrown brush.
Davidson then wondered whether passing drivers might think a cemetery had appeared on Route 6. "Oh, no," Angelicola said.
Commissioner Peter Zarella had looked at the website too. "You do have quite a talent," he said.
Ninety feet from the road
The building sits well back, almost 90 feet from the edge of the travel lane by Town Planner Shannon Rutherford's measurement, which she said is why a sign out front will help. The plan is a new panel in the existing sign frame, replacing the frame shop's, with the street number, the business name and a phone number. It will not be lit.
Rutherford called it "one of the fun properties in town." It falls in three zoning districts, she said: the commercial B1 zone that Cumberland Farms is in, covering most of the building; a residential zone over the eastern part of it; and another residential zone in back, where most of the land is wetland below a steep bank. The approval names all three.
Robert Ingvertsen, an alternate seated as a voting member for the night, asked about parking, since Cumberland Farms customers tend to use the lot when the building is empty. Angelicola said he was not concerned. He has already talked with some of them, he said, including bus drivers who stop at Cumberland Farms for coffee on a half-hour break. "I figure keep it on good terms with people," he said.
Hours are still to be worked out. His wife, Stephanie, will mostly run the office, he said, and they will try different times to see when people stop in. The minutes put the likely starting hours at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Commissioner David St. Germain made the motion, Zarella seconded, and it passed unanimously. "Welcome to Farmington," Chair Liz Sanford told him, "and good luck."
"It's going to be a nice building," Angelicola said.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, a neighbor of sorts at 155 Scott Swamp Road and the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Stone is made to last. So, at institutional grade, is everything a family decides to keep. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington's Plan and Zoning Commission long enough to know the best item on the agenda is sometimes the shortest one. He is on his second coffee and has decided Route 6 just got more interesting. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town nobody else is covering: the craftsman who needed people to see his work, the commission that said yes, and the zoning map that put three zones under one roof. We publish slowly, deliberately, and without apology. Our motto is "Always last to breaking news," and we mean it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell your neighbors. #WeAreFarmington 📰