Butler Township Commissioner Dave Zarnick tours the office of AGR founder Frank Preston on the former Preston property in the township. The 90-acre estate was bequeathed to the township in 2008 with the stipulation that it be kept as a park and community space.

BUTLER TWP — Standing at the Preston house you hear no traffic noises.

Only a mile from the township building and two miles from the New Castle Road shopping mecca, the 90-acre property feels more like being in a state forest than a busy township.

Surrounded by trees, and with ponds and several buildings constructed in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the property was the birthplace of one of Butler County's global companies, American Glass Research, AGR, as well as the home to the Prestons, Frank and Jane.

When Jane died in 2008, she left the land and its buildings to the township to be kept as a park and community space.

The property is not open to the public, and township police patrol it regularly, plus all the buildings have alarms, one of which township Commissioner Dave Zarnick accidentally set off Thursday morning while opening the main house.

The township received the deed to land in July and officials have begun the work of determining what should be done with the property, how it can be used and how much that will cost.

Commissioner Joe Hasychak and Zarnick are aware not only that the Prestons' gift is a great one, but it has a hefty price tag with the cost of upkeep, renovation and use.

Jane did leave the township an unspecified amount of money, but the township is only allowed to use the interest earned on that money for the property's upkeep. Zarnick said at this point that's only about $30,000 annually.

"There's a lot we don't know about the property and a lot we don't know about what we should be doing with it, but we are taking it slow, trying to do it right," Zarnick said during a tour of the property Thursday.

To that end, the township is forming an advisory board that will be made up of one township commissioner; a representative of Butler County Community College; the Preston family attorney, Robert Shott; and two Meridian residents who must gather signatures from at least 50 township voters.

Zarnick will be the township's representative, while Ruth Purcell, director of the BC3 Foundation, is the college's choice.

The township still is searching for two Meridian residents to complete the board.

Once formed, the group will examine the property, its potential and possible sources of revenue.

Zarnick said the commissioners are thinking of offering a museum of what the Prestons' lives were like and space for community classes such as art classes or gardening classes.

"Nothing is determined yet," he said. "We've just gotten started."

Frank Preston bought the property in 1936 and there he founded AGR.Along the drive is an old tin sheet, two-story building that originally housed the company that engineers machines to fill, pack and ship bottled goods.Next to that is a large well house. While the workshop might have been built in the 1930s, the well house brick matches that of the Prestons' home built in the 1950s.On the other side of the circular drive is a garage, the roof of which is supported by 2-inch thick, 20-foot single board beams that now would be too expensive for the inside of a house, let alone a garage.Zarnick and Hasychak said most of the tools and equipment, including tractors and mowers, were taken by a nephew before the township took ownership of the property."We told them to take what the family wanted and he took all that machinery, which he could do, but now we are borrowing the township tractors and trucks to get the mowing done," Hasychak said.It takes 44 hours to mow the grass.Near the house, there is a metal pole type building that belongs to Carnegie Mellon University. The township doesn't know what's in it because it is locked.Zarnick said the township has begun talking with the university to try to buy it.But part of the Preston property's legacy is that a number of taxidermied animals featured in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh were stuffed and mounted on the property."It says so on the cards at the museum," Zarnick said.Next is a three-story brick building that Jane Preston leased to outside businesses in the 1990s. The building is dirty, with dead bats littering the floors.The commissioners said they believe the second floor was used for entertainment, like dancing, noting the oak floors and small riser in one corner.An old gas pump is next to this building advertising "Pennzest Gas."Behind this building are the remnants of recent vegetable and flower gardens, as well as an apple orchard.Both Zarnick and Hasychak said they have learned Jane Preston liked fresh, organic foods; sunbathing; no curtains or rugs in the house; and cold, rainwater baths.

The house was built in the 1950s with the same brick used at the YWCA on West Cunningham Street in Butler. It's a long, low, ranch-style house with a center second floor that contains two small bedrooms, a full bath and a kitchen that doesn't look like it was used.Downstairs, visitors walk into the center office where furniture and office fixtures look, for the most part, like someone just left the room to get a cup of coffee.Across the top of the back wall made of what looks to be white, pink and black Plexiglass, there is the outline of a steel mill skyline.On the wall is an 8-by-5 map of the world with pins stuck in cities that the commissioners assume were places the Prestons visited. On the map are the words, "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics," across what has once again become Russia and other countries. Also, the west coast of Africa has a large plot of land titled, "West French Africa."Of course, the map was printed in 1951.Not much has changed in the house's interior except that it is probably much dirtier than the Prestons would have allowed and there is less furniture, including some rooms that are bare.The main floor kitchen is one of the company's former laboratories with a large exhaust hood, a pantry full of rocks and Bunsen burners, one of which Jane used to cook her meals after Frank died, Zarnick said.The counter also features multiple food grinders and a food press, made by workers on the property using two stainless steel pans and a small car jack."The guys said Mrs. Preston liked to make juice and so they rigged this up for her," Zarnick said.The basement features the original electrical supply hook up, that looks like a small transformer; a Maytag wringer washer; and a large oak barrel.Hasychak said the barrel was Jane's bathtub, pointing to the pipe that carries rainwater into the house nearby.Rainwater seems to have found its way into all of the buildings, through the roofs or the walls, the damage clearly visible."Just another thing we have to think about," Zarnick said.

In front of the house is a flagpole, but you can see where a second stood. When dignitaries from foreign countries visited the Prestons, the visitor's national flag was raised next to Old Glory, which always flew.Across from the poles, is a circle of posts and signs, each naming a foreign city and the miles to that place from the Prestons' front yard. Zarnick said a Boy Scout is researching the signs and hopes to restore them as part of a service project."It's going to be a project like that and people other than the Boy Scouts to help us make this place what it can be," Zarnick said."It's a wonderful spot and we are so honored to have received it," he added. "But now the work has to begin."

Volunteers clear branches and debris Thursday from a trail on the former Preston property. The 90-acre property, with a main house, several other buildings and two ponds, was the home of AGR founder Frank Preston and his wife, Jane. The property was given to Butler Township in 2008 when Jane Preston died.