Babbitt, who has studied local buildings in detail and suggested the church's new color, said many of the 18th-century buildings and homes here were originally not white and did not even have shutters. A great many of the white, shuttered houses and buildings in Litchfield - and throughout New England - were not white with dark shutters to begin with and became white only through what a local architect, Thomas Babbit, sees as some latter-day crusade of ''Colonialization.'' The Victorian-style Methodist church was originally dark brown and dark gray. It seems, though, that the so-called traditionalists who favor white do not have history on their side. All agree, however, that none of these examples are as egregious as the golden church in the heart of town. A fabric store near the church was painted a rusty red color just last week, to the continuing chagrin of a great many residents. The Litchfield Historical Society is cited as perhaps the first major offender, having painted two of the town's most historically significant buildings - the Tapping Reeve House and the Law School - ''peach'' and ''gray,'' respectively, to the dismay of critics. Finan's fear of an outbreak of coloration is not without foundation. ''We wanted to say we're here! We're alive!'' she explained. When the decision was made to rebuild, the color seemed appropriate. ''We have only 60 families, many of them older people, and there was serious question whether we should go on,'' she said. He guessed that most houses in town were an exterior oil-based white, with the shutters a mix of Copper Verde and black, combined to form the darkest of greens. The man behind the counter there, Nick Platt, said he did not sell a can of pigmented exterior paint in a month of Sundays. Finan, adding that he feared that the painting of the church might ''open the floodgates'' and inundate the community with all manner of Valley Forge Greens, Minute Man Blues, Colony Reds and Springfield Rifle Grays, available just down the street at Switer's paint and lumber. ''I firmly believe the town should be all white,'' said Mr. Arguing that visitors come to Litchfield because of the Colonial beauty of the all-white homes, he agreed with those who have speculated that painting the houses and buildings could destroy that charm and stop the tourists from coming. Similarly appalled, Doyle Finan, a member of the Burough Board of Burgesses, has suggested restrictions on coloration, and expects a vote next week on restricting the hues of roofing shingles and vinyl and aluminum siding. ''It's just a lousy shame.'' Restrictions Being Sought ''Horrible,'' said Gertrude O'Donnell, a lifelong resident, expressing a popular view here. The Methodists have painted their white church a color, several colors actually - light gold and dark gold with blue window sash, not to mention the tricolored roof in gold and two shades of brown. Now, pigmentation has reared its ugly head in Litchfield, and many residents are strenuously objecting to what they see as this corrosion of Colonial charm. The National Park Service once described it as probably the ''finest surviving example of of a typical late 18thcentury New England town.'' They live in a community easily mistaken for a living museum, with its pure white Congregational church overlooking a village green (with cannon) and block after block of white clapboard homes with black or green shutters. On occasion, residents of this little community in the Berkshire foothills will look up to find tourists standing in their front hallways and living rooms.
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